Glia, the leader in AI-powered interactions for banking, today announced the winners of its 2025 Catalyst Awards at the company’s annual customer and industry event, Glia Interact. The awards honor today’s most forward-thinking financial institutions that are using Glia’s AI and ChannelLess® platform to drive next-level customer experiences, create radical efficiency, and inspire growth.
This year’s honorees span a range of community banks and credit unions, with each winner demonstrating measurable impact across service quality, operational efficiency, and employee empowerment. The winners’ results stem from strategic use of Glia’s AI-powered interaction platform, which improves efficiency and productivity for front-line teams and empowers them to reallocate capacity toward relationship building and community impact.
“The Catalyst Awards are a chance for us to celebrate the real visionaries in our industry,” said Dan Michaeli, CEO and co-founder of Glia. “While many talk about technology, these five institutions are actively using Glia's platform to support their unwavering commitment to the people they serve. They’ve found a way to not just achieve efficiency, but to point those savings toward building financial wellness and fostering deeper relationships in their communities. Their passion for serving their customers and members sets a powerful example for the future of community banking.”
Glia’s 2025 Catalyst Awards winners include:
- Banner Bank, recipient of the Harmonizer Award for unifying voice and digital service with AI agents that extend hours and create smooth handoffs to human experts.
“Providing our clients with exceptional service guides every operational decision, so that’s what led us to choosing Glia’s AI assistants for voice and digital channels,” said Brenda Wilbur, senior vice president and client engagement center director at Banner. “We’ve been able to expand our service hours without increasing agent headcount. The AI assistants are available 24/7 to answer basic client questions, which is freeing up our team to focus more of their time on complex interactions.”
- TDECU, recipient of the Pacesetter Award for rapid time-to-impact, automating high-volume inbound inquiries and elevating member service around the clock.
“By introducing Glia’s AI-powered digital experience, we have increased our operational efficiency and enhanced our member service,” said Taylor Fluitt, senior tech product management specialist at TDECU. “We successfully automated a significant portion of our inbound inquiries, allowing us to serve members faster while empowering our agents to focus on high-value, complex conversations that deepen member relationships.”
- Fibre Federal Credit Union, recipient of the Energizer Award for channeling AI-driven savings into people and process improvements, turning efficiency into sustained momentum for members and employees.
“Our adoption of Glia’s AI has yielded significant results and unlocked new opportunities for growth,” said Lori Dickie, assistant vice president, Digital Member Experience at Fibre FCU. “Tools like the Glia Virtual Assistant and AutoComplete have resulted in significant cost and time savings for our internal teams. These savings have been strategically reinvested into initiatives that directly benefit both our employees and members. With newfound efficiency, our leadership team has shifted from reactive support to proactively improving the member experience.”
- Busey Bank, recipient of the Prodigy Award for standout performance in a complex environment—proving impact just 90 days post-launch during a major $7 billion bank conversion.
“We’re only 90 days post-launch and already seeing powerful results following a transformative $7 billion bank conversion,” said Caitlin Drake, senior vice president and director of Consumer Experience and Support at Busey Bank. “Thanks in part to Glia, Busey is successfully handling more call volume than ever before with fewer associates—all while exceeding our performance goals.”
- Heritage Federal Credit Union, recipient of the Visionary Award for setting a scalable, member-centric model that combines AI efficiency with human empathy across channels.
“Since implementing Glia’s ChannelLess platform in 2024, Heritage has transformed our contact center, blending AI efficiency with human empathy to deliver a scalable, member-centric service model for our members,” said Adam Goetzke, director of Customer Experience at Heritage FCU. “Glia’s AI is integral to our customer interaction strategy, automating routine tasks to enhance efficiency and elevating member experiences, agent performance, and operational scalability.”
Glia’s selection of its 2025 Catalyst Awards winners comes at a pivotal moment for AI in customer interactions. A recent study by the company identified an industrywide gap between AI adoption and AI maturity. While 75% of contact centers use AI, only a third fully embed it into daily workflows and measurement systems. Meanwhile, 86% of contact center leaders say AI is crucial, but only 27% measure its impact—missing a key link to larger growth initiatives and community impact priorities.
“AI is rapidly becoming a non-negotiable part of business, but the real differentiator is how a company chooses to use it,” said Paul Sheets, chief customer officer at Glia. “In a challenging economic climate where customers are seeking more support and guidance than ever, our Catalyst Awards winners are using Glia to expand their human teams’ capacity to do just that. They are the clear leaders of a new era, proving that responsible AI deployment isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about strengthening the human connection that defines our industry.”
Monday at Interact, Glia unveiled powerful new Voice AI innovations that revolutionize how financial institutions serve their customers over the phone. Glia’s next-gen human-like AI voices ensure that even automated calls build confidence and trust, allowing financial institutions to scale their service without ever trading off efficiency for experience.
Additional information on Glia is available at glia.com.
About Glia
Glia is the leading AI customer interactions solution for banks and credit unions. Our platform unifies AI and human agents across every voice and digital interaction with our proprietary ChannelLess® Architecture. With Glia’s AI for All™, organizations solve the tradeoff between efficiency and experience by using AI to automate interactions, elevate agent performance, and transform reporting and insights for leaders.
Glia has been named a Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ company for five consecutive years and is certified as a Great Place to Work (with a 98% employee satisfaction rating). With an industry-leading 72 NPS score across over 700 organizations, the company has raised over $150 million in funding from top investors and was recently valued at over $1 billion. Learn more at glia.com.
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