Closing the insights-impact gap: How credit unions can use AI to turn data into performance

Credit unions are betting big on data. A staggering 79% of banking leaders said their enterprise would increase funding for business intelligence and data analytics in 2026, according to Gartner’s most recent forecast report. What’s even more notable is that 30% of those leaders say the increase is 25% or higher than what they spent in 2025.

This sector is an absolute juggernaut: Banks and credit unions poured $11.3 billion into big data analytics’ fuel tank in 2025. By 2035 (it’s closer than you think), the amount is projected to hit $76 billion, expanding at a CAGR of 23.6%. In short, the market is projected to double its size every three to four years.

So, clearly, data is incredibly high on credit unions’ list of priorities. What’s not so high on the list is what exactly to do with all that data.

BI and analytics tools are delivering on their promise: dashboards are sharper, reporting is faster, and the patterns are clearer.

Information used to languish on sprawling Excel spreadsheets or static documents. Gathering information, let alone analyzing it, was a time-draining endeavor that only a specialized team could handle.

Now, credit unions can easily track data, such as:

“Banks and credit unions possess vast amounts of customer data, yet much of it remains fragmented across disconnected systems, such as core banking platforms, CRM systems, digital banking tools, and marketing platforms,” according to a 2026 article by The Financial Brand.

Call it “the insight to impact gap.” Or “data-to-value dilemma” or “insight to execution loop.” At its core, the problem is this: There’s a gap between what a credit union knows it must change and the act of changing it.

A quick example: It’s like watching your favorite baseball team play and knowing it needs to make a pitching change vs your team actually making the change.

The gap is more common than leaders want to admit. What’s even worse is that this gap is more costly.

By far, the biggest cost arising from this gap is the valuable insights (that you paid good money for!) that don’t get acted upon. So, there’s no business impact at all. Consider all the money wasted!

The “non-financial cost” deeply affects the business culture of the credit union and also staff motivation (and ultimately, staff turnover). But in the end, that “non-financial cost” does cost the credit union money.

The worst part is that data doesn’t stay fresh forever. A data fact today might be different next month. Or even the next day. Nothing renders data more useless than not acting on it.

The root of this gap is an operational breakdown. So, the biggest reason for the existing gap is the lack of organizational maturity and “culture levers,” according to the Filene Research Institute.

Most credit unions treat insight and execution as separate workstreams. Data lives in the realm of analytics; performance is with Ops or HR. Both teams treat the streams like the ones in the old “Ghostbusters movie”: they must never cross or mayhem will happen.

However, the opposite is true. Insight and execution are in a symbiotic relationship. Both are needed for the credit union to thrive.

The most common and least-addressed reason insights don’t become impact is a knowledge and skills gap at the frontline.

According to the McKinsey Frontline Skills Gap study, companies spend an average of $9,100 annually per employee on SaaS but just $1,200 per employee on training and development.

Staff can’t act on what they don’t understand. For example, what use is a dashboard about what products are underperforming if staff members lack knowledge and confidence to promote those products to members? Or what is the point of knowing that digital adoption is lagging if no effort is made to to drive digital fluency amongst staff and members?

Those insights on a digital dashboard might as well be in a spreadsheet or on a dry-erase board if no action follows.

Training for the sake of training won’t close this loop. Focused, intentional training, however, will. When a credit union knows what data is surfacing and how staff is being trained and supported, they are one step closer to repairing the operational breakdown.

Let’s take a look at how that plays out for staff:

Not all performance gaps are related to staff, however. Sometimes, the data shows that your credit union needs to better support members with helpful content, useful guides, and solid information.

Here’s what that plan looks like for credit union members:

Loop closed!

At the heart of the credit union is the people-first culture. Unlike banks, which focus first on the profits of external shareholders, credit unions are owned by their members. Historically, credit unions are known for the “people helping people” approach.

Financial institutions want to turn staff members into advisors who have the knowledge and confidence to unearth members’ needs. That spirit of helpfulness makes them more inclined than banks to discover engaging ways to train staff into better understanding their products and sharing that knowledge with credit union members.

Closing the insight-impact gap is then just part of business as usual (or should be) for credit unions. It’s just a natural extension of how credit unions approach their staff and members.

Every credit union nowadays can gather a seemingly limitless amount of information. But not every credit union will succeed. The ones that plan how to use that data and then implement the framework to act on it will.

Is your credit union acting on information gathered? Think of one insight from your last BI review and ask yourself, “How can we turn this into a frontline behavior change?”

If you’re exploring practical ways to modernize onboarding and frontline enablement, you can learn more here: LemonadeLXP.