Leaders within the credit union industry – typically economists, CEOs and technology organization leaders – love making predictions and often share their latest with CU Times during each holiday season for the upcoming year. This past season, we received fewer prediction story pitches than usual, and those we did get were almost exclusively in the tech space (and to be fair, with the planning of in-person activities in flux, technology is one area of life and business that will be an ongoing need). Here are a few tech-related predictions that came across our desks and may be the exceptions to the emerging "predictions are useless" rule:

In a December webinar, presenters from fintech organizations MX, Finn AI and Q2 predicted that open banking will continue to accelerate in 2022 as younger people become more willing to share their data in exchange for personalized experiences, ease and convenience. In addition, they said that as impacts of the pandemic recede, consumers' increased use of digital channels will not.
Credit unions will further explore potential ways to incorporate cryptocurrency into their strategies, according to several organizations including NCR's Banking arm and the CUSO Member Driven Technologies. They forecast that credit unions will expand member access to crypto payments and investment opportunities to gain a competitive advantage. But as they do so, they'll have to be on the lookout for fraud – digital banking security company OneSpan predicted cryptocurrency fraud will skyrocket in 2022.
Numerous organizations predicted increasing adoption of AI-powered tools among credit unions in an effort to provide better member service. Many of these predictions have been woven into this month's Focus Report on AI's Growing Impact. In addition, OneSpan asserted that policies and legislation pertaining to the use of AI will top regulatory agendas this year.

As for my own predictions for the industry in 2022, one I have in mind is that credit unions, like many businesses and organizations, will struggle to balance maintaining normal operations with keeping employees and members safe from COVID. Unfortunately, it seems that achieving both of those goals at the same time is impossible. Some businesses that have remained open during the Omicron surge, including credit union branches, are being forced to close anyway when staff members fall ill. And on the conference front, numerous in-person industry events are scheduled to take place beginning next month. Cancelling these comes at a cost for everyone involved, but if they move forward, more people will get sick, leading to other business disruptions when attendees return home. So, should credit union professionals keep branches open and attend conferences this year in an attempt to maintain "normalcy," despite the domino effect of problems the resulting spread of illness will bring? This dilemma is certain to be a source of stress and difficult decision-making for industry leaders for some time.

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