November 6, 2026
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Two-year partnership with WSI Digital is helping Forward Bank use technology to strengthen service, support employees, and keep relationships at the center of community banking.
Forward Bank, a customer-owned community bank serving communities across northern and central Wisconsin and Southeast Minnesota, has been recognized with the Global People’s Choice Award at WSI’s 2026 Global Convention for its two-year work adopting artificial intelligence across the organization.
For Forward, the work has never been about technology for technology’s sake. The bank’s approach has focused on using AI behind the scenes to help employees work more efficiently, analyze information, improve processes, and identify opportunities while keeping people, relationships, and local decision-making at the center of the customer experience.
“For us, AI isn’t about replacing the relationships that define community banking,” said Sheri Dick, Chief Operating Officer of Forward Bank. “It’s about giving our employees better tools so they can spend more time solving problems, serving customers, and supporting our communities. We’ve approached this carefully from the beginning, with strong governance and the belief that technology should strengthen the human side of banking.”
Forward began its AI initiative with a challenge familiar to many community banks: how to take advantage of rapidly changing technology without the resources of a much larger institution or sacrificing the personal service customers expect.
The bank partnered with Eric Cook of WSI Digital, a former community banker, to build an approach suited specifically to a highly regulated financial institution. Early work centered on governance, policy, and responsible use, creating a framework that allows Forward employees to explore and deploy AI tools while maintaining appropriate compliance and risk oversight.
That foundation is now producing measurable results. In one reporting period, Forward recorded 4,677 Copilot actions across departments, saving an estimated 276 hours of staff time. Compliance and risk teams have identified potential annual savings of 400 to 1,300 hours through AI-supported process improvements, while Marketing has saved an estimated 140 hours annually in research and analysis.
For Forward, those hours represent more than efficiency. Reducing time spent on repetitive administrative work, research, and manual processes creates additional capacity for employees to focus on customers, solve problems, strengthen relationships, and support the communities the bank serves.
That distinction is especially important for a community bank serving farmers, small businesses, families, and retirees across rural Wisconsin and Minnesota. Forward’s goal is to use technology to make banking easier and its employees more effective without making the experience less personal.
Employees across Forward have also become active participants in the initiative, bringing forward their own ideas for ways AI can improve their work. Several of those ideas have developed into larger projects, including an internal marketing intake platform currently being developed with WSI Digital.
“What we’ve built with Forward goes well beyond implementing a new technology,” said Eric Cook, CEO & Chief Digital Strategist at WSI Digital. “There are people throughout the organization who have taken the reins and become AI experts in their own right. They’re finding practical ways to use these tools to make their work better, and that’s the part of this partnership I’m proudest of.”
The recognition reflects Forward’s broader approach to innovation: adopting new tools when they can help the bank serve people better while protecting the relationships and local connection that define community banking.
About WSI Digital
WSI Digital helps community banks build trust and visibility, both with customers searching Google and with AI systems answering questions on their behalf. Founded by Eric Cook, a 15-year community banking veteran turned digital strategist, the agency works with banks across the country on website performance, digital advertising, AI strategies, and operates as part of the global WSI digital agency network. Learn more at www.poweredbywsi.com.