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In Episode 8 of CU Next, host Joe Thomas sits down with Jeffrey Staw, Chief Information & Innovation Officer at Firefighters First Credit Union. Jeffrey shares his unique dual perspective-moving from building abstracted, multi-tenant solutions at Open Technology Solutions (OTS) to managing front-line member delivery and a deep portfolio of fintech vendors.Together, they break down the economics of digital banking, the hard truths behind the buy vs. build dilemma, how to turn adversarial vendor dynamics into collaborative "win-win-win" relationships, and why the future of AI in community financial institutions hinges on human-tech orchestration rather than just adding another channel.In This Episode, We Discuss:The operational friction between multi-tenant CUSO scale and credit union field-of-membership focusMoving beyond the "grocery store" mindset: Why contract fees are only table stakes in vendor partnershipsThe rise of platform thinking: How mid-size institutions achieve agility through extensible architectureThe real reasons modern digital banking stacks remain costly, slow to iterate, and heavily commoditizedWhy agentic AI must be orchestrated with human advisors, not simply bolted on as another communication siloEpisode Timestamps:00:00 – Introductions & Jeffrey Staw’s journey into the credit union movement01:25 – Firefighters First Credit Union: Mission, asset size, and serving career firefighters03:11 – From CUSO leader to Credit Union CIO: Perspectives from both sides of the table05:13 – The abstraction challenge: Building common solutions vs. meeting individual CU needs07:21 – Stepping into the operator seat: Managing internal expectations and vendor timelines09:36 – Transforming vendor dynamics: Moving from transactional buyers to strategic partners12:18 – The "Win-Win-Win": Why your credit union needs its technology providers to succeed15:17 – Buy vs. Build: Moving away from proprietary code toward platform thinking18:28 – The citizen developer debate: CIO vs. COO perspectives20:48 – Inside the digital banking bottleneck: Tech debt, refactoring cycles, and third-party plugins24:52 – Beyond "Channel Bloat": The true role of AI and agentic tech in credit unions26:35 – Human + Machine Orchestration: Finding the true competitive edge for community banking27:45 – Closing thoughts & wrap-up🔗 Subscribe to CU Next for weekly conversations with the executive and technology leaders modernizing the credit union movement.#CUNext #CreditUnions #Fintech #DigitalBanking #PlatformThinking #BankingTechnology #ArtificialIntelligence #CreditUnionLeadership
