Is your bank invisible to AI? The data that should wake you up, with Corey Wrinn.

In the latest episode of the Digital Banking Podcast, host Josh DeTar welcomed Corey Wrinn, managing director of Rivel Banking Research. Wrinn brought a data-driven lens to the conversation, and the two wasted little time getting into what the research actually shows about where community banking is headed.

The bulk of the episode centered on AI discoverability. Rivel found that roughly twelve percent of consumers now go directly to tools like ChatGPT or Gemini when searching for a banking product, and when combined with AI-summarized Google results, that figure climbs to around fifty percent. Wrinn noted that number was effectively zero eighteen months ago.  Influencing those results takes significant time and money, which puts smaller institutions at a real disadvantage against national players like Chime. One bright spot: Gen Z tends to be the most skeptical of AI results and actively seeks outside verification before acting, which creates an opening for institutions with a credible presence beyond their own website.

Wrinn and DeTar closed by making the case for differentiation over sameness. Proactive outreach, niche products, and youth accounts were all held up as practical ways to build loyalty before a competitor gets there first. Rivel’s data showed that roughly twenty-five percent of kids whose parents opened a youth account at an institution stayed there for life. Wrinn can be reached at rivelbankingresearch.com for those interested in Rivel’s research on brand benchmarking and local competitive intelligence.