2026 Tekkie Industry Game Changer Award: Vertice AI

By Roy Urrico

Finopotamus is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Tekkie Awards, all of whom will be profiled individually throughout the month of August. In this installment of the series, we highlight Athens, Ga.-based Vertice AI, a growth and engagement platform, as the Industry Game Changer Award winner. This achievement recognizes an established technology provider whose solutions have fundamentally shifted how credit unions operate or serve members.

The Vertice AI platform embeds artificial intelligence directly into daily credit union workflows, enabling marketing, retail, and strategy teams to execute precision engagements without reliance on data scientists, IT bottlenecks, or external vendors. Vertice AI operates as an intuitive growth engine with guided recommendations and workflows that drive measurable, actioned member growth outcomes.

The Vertice AI platform also helps credit unions move beyond mass outreach and generic campaigns by enabling relevant, timely, and individualized engagement across the full member lifecycle.

 “It is fantastic. It is validating that we have been on this journey for about four years now to bring the power of data and AI to credit unions to more efficiently and effectively serve members,” Vertice AI’s CEO and Co-Founder Mitch Rutledge explained to Finopotamus upon learning of the Tekkie recognition. “It just validates the work that we have been doing. More importantly my hats go off to the credit unions that are using it. Over 85 credit unions now are leveraging the Vertice solution to turn data into action and we're excited this is recognizing the work they are doing and that we are just a part of supporting their growth journey.”

How Vertice AI Helps CUs

The Vertice AI platform helps credit unions “get beyond actionable insights to actioned insights,” emphasized Rutledge. “Credit unions use the platform to build highly targeted campaigns, personalize messaging, and optimize engagement across the member lifecycle without requiring internal data scientists or complex infrastructure.”

One credit union client described how having the Vertice AI platform helped virtually double their one-person marketing team, Rutledge noted. “It's about leveraging the power of AI to drive the exponential scale and gains for these small teams.”

Delivered as cloud-based SaaS platform with a fully integrated suite of modules — including CORE, ACQUIRE, COMPOSE, and AGENT — Vertice AI supports the full relationship lifecycle, from prospect identification to compliant content creation, real-time optimization, and engagement measurement. AGENT acts as an interactive copilot module that allows teams to query data, generate targeted audiences, design campaigns, and execute strategies via a conversational interface, enabling workflow driven personalization across millions of interactions.

Unique to Vertice AI’s solution is its proprietary Member Product Participation (MPP) score, a metric that provides a holistic view of engagement, incorporating transactions, balances, tenure, and potential for growth. These scores identify which members are most likely to benefit from specific products, which relationships require nurturing, and where growth opportunities exist.

Vertice AI’s solution enables self-service access to analytics and audience creation, allowing teams to launch targeted campaigns in minutes, rather than weeks. Vertice AI’s technology combines advanced analytical modeling and modern AI techniques, including random forest models, regression, clustering, association models, and large language models (LLMs). The platform integrates with existing systems and data sources, enabling rapid deployment and allowing institutions to achieve value without disrupting ongoing operations.

Delivering Results

Vertice AI is fully operational with live deployments across the United States, serving credit unions of varying asset sizes. Institutions consistently report significant improvements in engagement, adoption, and growth, according to the company. Personalized campaigns powered by Vertice AI have delivered 200-600% higher new product adoption rates compared to broad, non-targeted outreach. Deposit-focused engagement programs have produced 41% higher initial deposit amounts by aligning messaging with customers most likely to

respond.

Credit Union success stories include:

• Amarillo, Texas-based Education Credit Union ($476 million), eliminated reliance on external vendors and internal data bottlenecks, enabling the team to quickly and independently execute targeted campaigns. This resulted in a 270% lift in campaign conversion rates year over year, nearly 1% checking account adoption in targeted campaigns, 8% more products per member among Vertice-identified prospects, and $2 million in new loan balances alongside $250,000 in new deposits directly tied to Vertice-powered outreach.
  

• Grand Blanc, Mich.-based ELGA Credit Union ($2.5 billion) combined traditional mass-media promotion with the Vertice AI platform. By layering predictive targeting onto a broad auto loan promotion, ELGA transformed awareness into action. The campaign generated $5.7 million in total balances within 30 days, achieved 167% higher performance, and produced average auto-loan balances exceeding $26,000, which was 48% higher than the non-targeted group. The targeted members opened more than twice as many additional products during the campaign window, demonstrating deeper and longer-term engagement.
  

• The Houston-based Wellby Financial ($2.6 billion) used Vertice AI’s customer-focused, modular AI platform to translate advanced analytics into measurable engagement and growth outcomes. The credit union moved from limited, generalized campaigns to an always-on, AI driven engagement model. Early AI-driven campaigns increased deposit product adoption by 326%, with indirect members adopting high-interest checking at 11 times the average rate. Over a seven-month period, Wellby executed 205 targeted campaigns, delivered 4.3 million personalized communications, and drove $144 million in total balance growth. AI-powered targeting influenced nearly 40% of all new loans and 45% of loan balance growth, demonstrating that personalization can materially impact core financial performance at scale.

Intuitive Workflows

By combining advanced AI, an intuitive user experience, and deep domain expertise in credit unions, Vertice AI enables institutions to restore relationship-driven engagement through modern, practical technology. Vertice artificial intelligence’s platform offers a proven ability to translate AI into measurable outcomes, operational efficiency, and stronger financial relationships

“There are lots of solutions out that are just giving them another dashboard,” said Rutledge. “What you all recognize as the game changer is that we're allowing them to have an intuitive workflow. A $50 million credit union, or a $5 billion credit union, can make their marketing teams more efficient in how they engage members.”

Vertice AI empowers credit unions to create personalized campaigns that are more relevant for each member, explained Rutledge. “(We’re) getting away from the old days of, ‘Hey, it's springtime. Let's send the HELOC email’ and it goes to everybody. Now, in the springtime (they’re) saying, ‘These are the people that show needs and wants for HELOCs. These are the people that we should talk to about checking accounts. These are the people that we talk to about auto loans.’”

Rutledge zeroed in on two results seen by credit unions implementing Vertice AI:

• “We are not just empowering institutions to run more personalized campaigns. We're really empowering them to run many more campaigns. We have a credit union that used to do three campaigns a quarter and now they are doing 40 plus campaigns a month with the same team. So, it's about really being able to dial in this automation at scale. When a credit union says it's like an extra person. It's very common that our clients are able to generate much more member engagement at scale. That's a really key outcome. ELGA Credit Union. when they engage in their high propensity, targeted audiences not only do they see the higher conversion rates on those campaigns, but they see two times higher additional product adoption.”

• For credit union members, “That means I'm not just blasting you with a bunch of crap, I'm hitting you with things that are relevant to your needs and wants, and that builds trust and that builds further engagement. That to me is a really powerful metric beyond just every campaign is doing better.”

Rutledge summed up winning the Tekkie award: “We are super excited. We feel the work we are doing is validated when we are recognized by folks like you. You are the industry leaders. You are the spokespersons for the movement. To be recognized by you all just really makes us excited and validated that we are going to keep doing what we're doing and we've got some really exciting stuff coming.”