Baton Rouge Telco Federal Credit Union has chosen AI-driven customer engagement service provider Appli for its financial calculator. 

The AI-powered smart financial calculator gives the credit union usable engagement data and funnel loan progression, along with lead-capture functionality, Kristin Romero, chief experience officer at the credit union, told FinAi News. 

Prior to Appli, the $449 million credit union “had no visibility into how people were” using its calculator, Romero said. “I could see visitors were reaching the main calculator page, but beyond that, it was a data blind spot,” she said. 

That was the real missed opportunity because Appli’s tool gives the credit union “a pretty strong signal of intent,” she said.  

“They’re not just casually browsing our website, they’re researching an important financial decision,” Romero said. 

AI driving engagement, conversions 

It offers real-time rates and potential financial planning for a loan, Appli founder and CEO Tim Pranger told FinAi News. 

“Appli utilizes in-house confidence models for scoring to drive personalization, and then leverages existing LLM models to create personalized responses,” he said. 

Appli built tracking directly into the calculator to measure a customer’s intent of applying for a loan, Pranger said, adding that the calculator logs slider movements, payments, conversions and more to provide a personalized experience to the customer. 

“Every AI output is governed by strict instructions to inform the member or site visitor that the information does not indicate an approval, and is provided for informational and educational purposes,” Pranger said. “This allows the outputs to explain why their credit tier matters and how it relates to debt-to-income calculations, both with and without the loan, and their existing debt holistically.” 

The calculator tries to respond to questions the person is asking themselves through an intuitive experience — “Can I afford this?” “What will my rate be?” “Is this something that fits my current lifestyle?” and “Is this a loan I should be thinking about?” Pranger said. 

Just one month after the tool’s July 8 launch, the credit union had generated more than $4 million in loan conversion value, with a 17.7% conversion rate and 150 loan applications started, according to Appli’s Aug. 20 release. 

“With Appli, we now have much greater visibility into how consumers are engaging with the tools, and most importantly, whether that’s translating into action,” Romero said. “That’s allowed us to begin connecting what was previously anonymous calculator activity to meaningful business outcomes.” 

Appli’s clients include: 

• $103 million Connect Credit Union; 

• $308 million Energy One FCU; 

• $246 million GHS Federal Credit Union; and 

• $1.5 billion Orsa Credit Union. 

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas. This inaugural event will include speakers from Fifth Third and Capital One as well as a fireside chat with Piermont Bank founder and Chief Executive Wendy Cai-Lee.