Fran boasts a 98% resolution rate and provides Michigan State University Federal Credit Union members with around-the-clock support
What started as a mission to offer members 24/7 support became something much bigger — an AI agent that now resolves most member requests on her own. Meet Fran, MSU Federal Credit Union’s ever-improving AI agent.
Since her adoption, Fran has become a beloved member of the MSUFCU team, handling up to 75% of member conversations and paving the way for an entirely new AI department.
“What we’ve seen is a significant number of our members using Fran,” says Ashleigh Ashbrook, MSUFCU’s VP of Digital Service Experience.
“We’ve actually had the chance to build an entire AI team that focuses on improving Fran, and we’re seeing 75% of member conversations not only going through Fran, but ending with her as they’ve been able to get what they need.
“What’s been really great about that is we’ve been able to allow our humans to do the really thoughtful work.”
MSUFCU's results at a glance...
- 75% of member conversations handled
- 20,000+ messages received per month
- Fran does the work of approx. 55 FTE
- 98% resolution rate
- Fran covers more than 4,000 credit union-related topics (intents)
How boost.ai helped transform the member experience for MSUFCU
Following a previous project with another vendor, MSUFCU put its faith in boost.ai to implement an AI agent that improved responsiveness and service while preserving accuracy.
“I’ve been at the credit union for just under 18 years,” explains Ashleigh, “and during that time, I’ve worked with several different vendors to implement solutions.
“This [working with boost.ai] has been one of the smoothest [implementations] that we’ve had. What we really look at from the MSUFCU side is that we don’t want a vendor that’s just a vendor. We want a partner.
“What really stood out for us working with boost.ai is that they took the time to understand what the culture of our credit union was, what level of service experience we promise to our members, and how to make all of that happen.” - Ashleigh Ashbrook, MSUFCU’s VP of Digital Service Experience
Fran’s early impact
When Fran relaunched in September 2021, she went straight from deployment to providing around-the-clock support at a resolution rate of 81.1%.
Over the coming months, MSUFCU’s new AI trainer team improved this resolution rate to 98%, meaning employees could focus on more complex member requests.
Ongoing improvements
As time has passed, Fran's knowledge base has evolved, enabling her to answer a variety of questions, expanding beyond basic member service answers.
At the end of 2022, MSUFCU’s AI agent could handle approximately 650 intents or topics related to customer queries. In Q1 2025, this number sat at around 4,000. Fran also received over 40,000 messages throughout January and February 2025, over twice the amount received during the same period in 2022.
As well as handling far more requests, Fran is also programmed to pop up on certain website pages to offer assistance in the right place, at the right time.
Fran also improves the member experience by:
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Handling transactions for authenticated members, such as moving money between accounts
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Locking or unlocking credit cards, especially helpful outside of business hours
“Now that we have added new controls like locking and unlocking your credit card, we’re providing things that are really convenient for our members,” adds Ashleigh.
“We are aware that some of the problems our members face might be outside of normal business hours, which is one of the biggest opportunities for us with Fran.
“It could be midnight, and Fran could be helping you with card fraud or with a transaction. It’s really efficient from a business perspective as Fran doesn’t take PTO — she’s always here!”
Enhance, not replace
One of the main benefits of Fran is that MSUFCU employees can move their focus away from handling repeat requests to more thoughtful work.
Employees can engage in deeper conversations with the information made available to them via Fran and have more time for problem-solving with members.
“Fran is a beloved employee of the credit union,” adds Ashleigh. “All of our other employees really do see Fran as an extension of our team.
“Last year, we had Fran doing the work of around 55 full-time employees, but that doesn’t mean we’re laying off those individuals — we’ve never done that. What it does allow us to evaluate is the timing in which vacant positions are filled based on the needs of the department, with the comparison of Fran's capacity.” - Ashleigh Ashbrook, MSUFCU’s VP of Digital Service Experience
“We have a team really focused on building intents and seeing what members are asking. We have a whole department that lives under our experience division that focuses on building Fran.”
Vision for the future
MSUFCU has big plans for Fran’s future, with boost.ai supporting the adoption of new tools and technologies, including:
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Having Fran support with cross-selling products and services to members
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Assisting members with loan applications by gathering information
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Increasing Fran’s proactivity with members on more website pages
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Trialling an LLM to improve the member experience further
On MSUFCU’s plans to achieve these targets with boost.ai, Ashleigh adds: “What’s been great about working with boost.ai is that we’re so connected in terms of communication.
“They’re always available when we need assistance with questions like ‘how does this new tool work?’’
“It’s a great partnership where we can bounce ideas off each other and ask for advice. They understand who we are, what our industry is, what we’re trying to accomplish, and what our goals are.
“They’re always willing to support and go above and beyond, and they’re always open to new ideas and challenges. It’s great to have a partner that’s willing to walk with us and our challenges and figure it out as we go.”
The feedback
Ashleigh, summarizing the project with boost.ai, adds: “We’ve had so many opportunities with Fran to provide superior member service at every interaction and help our employees grow in their careers.
“We have an entire department that works on Fran, and these individuals didn’t have these skills when they first came into the organization — they just found a passion for helping people that developed.
“We’ve built a great amount of trust with our members through Fran. They know that she’ll provide them with the correct information in a timely fashion, and if she can’t answer, she’ll find someone who can.
“Knowing that there’s always an opportunity to talk to a human has allowed us to find that balance of the human and the digital, and create a bridge between new technology and our members.”