PUB. 18 2021 ISSUE 3

22 WHAT A SMALL TOWN TAUGHT ME ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE By Neal Reynolds, President, BankMarketingCenter.com A s a community bank, nothing is more important to your success than understanding your customers and delivering value. What’s different today? There was a time when understanding your customer’s needs and overall financial behavior was, well, easy. Unfortunately, that’s simply not the case anymore. For a long time, community bankers achieved this customer insight by interaction. If you’re old enough to be reading this and grew up in a small town, I’m sure you remember. I do because that’s how I grew up.