Case Study: Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) achieves 70% automation of direct auto decisions and reduced delinquencies with Zest AI

WSECU gets in the driver’s seat with high-horsepower AI

WSECU (Washington State Employees Credit Union) was facing mounting application volumes and growing headcount as it expanded direct and indirect auto lending. The credit union needed a scalable, accurate, equitable, and fully explainable decisioning solution to sustain growth, ensure compliance, and provide clear adverse-action reasoning, so they engaged Zest AI and its AI credit underwriting/decisioning technology.

Zest AI deployed its underwriting solution to automate a large share of decisions—automating 70% of direct auto decisions (73% of direct auto approvals) and up to 40% of indirect applications within six months—while driving a 19% average reduction in delinquencies. WSECU also saw bigger lifts in instant approvals for middle and lower credit tiers, improved underwriter efficiency via clear compensating-factor insights, and smoother internal audits thanks to Zest AI’s explainability, MRM, and fair-lending documentation.

WSECU

Meaghan Brown

Director of Consumer Loan Operations