It’s 4:45 on a Friday. A 24-year-old needs to sort out a payment problem, so she opens her credit union’s chat window. Ten minutes pass with no reply. By minute eleven, she’s browsing fintech apps.
That small moment is the risk at the center of new research from Glia, which bills itself as the #1 Banking AI platform. Its 2026 Banking AI Consumer and Leader Survey polled 2,000 U.S. bank and credit union customers and 200 senior financial institution leaders. The finding in short: regional and community institutions have a real relationship advantage over megabanks and fintechs, but impatience is wearing it down. The timing matters too, with an estimated $84 trillion wealth transfer set to reshape the industry over the next 15 years.
Loyalty Is Not a Savings Account
Trust is the asset community institutions can’t afford to let slip, and it’s thinner among younger customers.
- Just 44% of Gen Z consumers call their primary bank or credit union a trusted partner, versus 57% of Baby Boomers.
- 58% of Gen Z considered switching institutions in the past year. Only 17% of Boomers did.
- 55% of all consumers say a 10-minute wait would threaten their loyalty.
- 42% are more likely to switch after three or more frustrating service experiences. For Gen Z, that number is 63%, compared with 37% of Boomers.
- Gen Z is nearly 3x more likely than Boomers to consider leaving after a 10-minute wait.
Digital Habits, Human Preferences
Younger customers aren’t abandoning people for software, though. Forty-six percent of Gen Z say they often or very often use AI tools to analyze their finances or make financial decisions. That compares with 37% of Millennials, 14% of Gen X and 5% of Boomers. Yet 27% of Gen Z still head to the branch first when they need customer service, not far behind the 33% of Boomers who do.
Think of a good restaurant. You want the water refilled without asking, but you also want a server who can talk you through the menu. Consumers seem to feel the same way about banking: AI for routine requests, where speed rules, and humans for the complicated stuff.
The Community Advantage Is Real
Fifty-seven percent of community bank and credit union customers describe their institution as a trusted partner, compared with 48% of big-bank customers. And 52% call the relationship “very warm,” versus 43%. The worry among leaders is on the digital side: 27% name an inferior digital experience as a top concern when competing with megabanks, and 38% when competing with fintechs.
“The Great Wealth Transfer creates a pivotal moment of opportunity — and risk — for community institutions,” said Dan Michaeli, Glia’s co-founder and CEO. “They can do nothing and watch deposits walk out the door to megabanks and fintechs, or they can adapt. Banking AI helps institutions strengthen the personalized relationships and community impact they’ve invested in for decades while also delivering the instant, effortless experiences that younger generations now expect.”
What Glia Says It Offers
More than 700 regional and community institutions use the Glia Banking AI platform. It connects interactions, institutional knowledge and workflow automation to provide instant, 24/7 service, which frees staff to spend their time on personalized support and growth.
Michaeli says the results show up in the data. Compared with peers, leaders at institutions powered by Glia are twice as satisfied with their AI technology, 21% more likely to deploy AI across customer and agent interactions, and 42% more likely to name personalized service as their primary AI goal. “Removing operational friction doesn’t replace the human touch,” he added. “It turns it into your strongest competitive differentiator.”
Community institutions already own the warmth. Speed is the part they have to earn back, and the clock starts at the first unanswered message.