By Craig Rebmann
During 2025, many of the most meaningful improvements we delivered started with conversations with credit unions. From executive road trips and advisory boards to onsite visits, podcasts and candid feedback from teams using our technology every day, this year was shaped by listening.
We did not build in isolation. We built alongside credit unions, CUSOs, partners and operations teams who challenged assumptions and helped define where lending and servicing needed to go next.
Here’s a look at the five priorities that rose to the top thanks to our credit unions partners.
1. Opening Our Ecosystem With the Developer Platform
Among the clearest messages we heard was to give us more control. More flexibility. More transparency. More ways to innovate without being constrained by a single vendor roadmap.
Dark Matter Technologies’s Developer Platform delivers on that need, providing our credit union customers with direct access to APIs, documentation, code samples and self-service tools so you can build, connect and extend solutions on your own terms. Rather than a closed system, the Developer Platform supports an open and modular ecosystem that aligns with how credit unions collaborate and innovate.
This is a critical step toward a more flexible and future-ready lending technology environment.
2. A Reimagined Experience for Members and Loan Officers
This year, Dark Matter rebuilt the experience on both sides of the lending journey. Your members now have a true self-service environment where they can apply, upload documents, eSign, make payments and receive automated pre-approvals from initial interest through closing. The experience is intuitive, transparent and designed to reduce friction at every step.
Loan officers told us they needed speed, mobility and tools that help them better serve members while improving conversion. In response, we delivered pricing scenarios, side-by-side comparisons, lead management tools and streamlined mobile workflows that support faster and more confident decision-making. This was not a visual refresh. It was a full re-architecture designed around how credit union teams and members actually interact.
3. Practical Automation That Removes Real Work
In 2025, we expanded lights-out processing, strengthened orchestration, refined the Empower LOS’s task flows and enhanced the user experience across the platform. We also expanded Aiva’s role in document classification, data extraction and income and asset automation.
There has been no shortage of conversation this year about large, generalized AI models. But in lending and servicing operations, precision and consistency are essential. Credit unions need automation that is trained for specific use cases and designed to reduce exceptions rather than create new ones. Our focus is on purpose-built automation that removes touches, improves quality and scales reliably.
4. Lowering the Total Cost of Ownership
Every credit union we spoke with shared the same reality: margins are tight, regulatory pressure remains high and efficiency is no longer optional. That is why we focused heavily on reducing total cost of ownership. This includes simplified release cycles, faster implementations, ready-to-use configurations and more predictable operating costs. By reducing complexity and improving time to value, credit unions are better positioned to invest in growth while maintaining financial discipline.
5. Elevate: A Servicing Platform Built for the Long Term
The introduction of the Elevate Loan Servicing Solution marked an important milestone. Elevate is a cloud-hosted servicing platform designed to support mortgage, home equity, auto, consumer and commercial loans with automation, transparency and a modern member experience built in from the start.
For credit unions, this means the ability to operate leaner servicing teams without sacrificing service quality or member trust. Early adopters are already seeing how different servicing can be when legacy constraints are removed and flexibility is built into the foundation.
Looking Ahead
If 2025 was about laying the foundation, 2026 will be about building momentum. That includes greater configurability in the Empower LOS, deeper intelligence and automation through Aiva, expanded integrations and partner connectivity, more self-service capabilities for members and loan officers, and continued innovation across Elevate.
The goal is clear: faster closings, higher quality and new opportunities to strengthen margins while delivering exceptional member experiences.
Thank You
Every one of these breakthroughs began with a conversation and with credit unions willing to share honest feedback and collaborate on what comes next. I am grateful for that partnership and excited about what we will continue to build together.
If you would like to explore any of these advancements or see what is ahead for 2026, visit dmatter.com or connect with me directly. I would also welcome the opportunity to continue the conversation on the Spotlight Backstage podcast.
Here is to a smarter, faster and more connected year ahead.
Craig Rebmann is Managing Director/Product Evangelist at Dark Matter Technologies where he leads strategic initiatives to bring automation and AI into the mortgage lending lifecycle.