# The General Consulting Company

> AI engineering for Canadian credit unions. We take credit unions from an AI policy their board will approve to AI systems running in production. Policy through production.

## About

The General Consulting Company (GCC) is a Canadian AI engineering practice working exclusively with credit unions. Founded by Nelson Lee, Founding Partner. Previously a software engineer at Shopify, building AI systems, workflows, and automations used by millions of merchants. Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto, with a minor in Artificial Intelligence.

GCC embeds with a credit union's team, in their building and inside their existing Microsoft environment, and builds systems the credit union's own staff can run afterward. The work is delivered in three stages, in order.

Contact: nelson@thegeneralconsultingcompany.com

## The Problem GCC Solves

Credit unions face three pressures that large banks solved by hiring:

1. **Board pressure.** The board is asking about AI, the core banking provider is shipping AI whether or not it was requested, and nobody inside owns the AI function.
2. **The cost of scale.** Growing the front office has always meant growing the back office. Every new member costs more in Finance, Compliance, and Operations.
3. **Members slipping through.** Failed transfers, stale requests, and no visibility into which member is ready for a second product.

## Approach: Policy Through Production

Three stages, delivered in order.

- **Stage 1, Clear the Runway** (https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/clear-the-runway). Get an AI policy the board will actually approve, plus the education to bring the board and the rest of the C-suite along. Deliverables: a board-ready AI policy, a board education session on AI, and a 2027 AI roadmap.
- **Stage 2, Break the Math** (https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/break-the-math). Save hundreds of hours with bespoke AI workflows that automate low-level back office work in Finance, Compliance, and Operations. Deliverables: reconciliation automation, credit review analysis, and AML narrative tooling.
- **Stage 3, Know Every Member and Accelerate Growth** (https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/know-every-member). Reaccelerate growth by catching member churn early and identifying new revenue. Deliverables: churn risk by member, second-product readiness, and trend discovery through data mining.

## Proof

BCU Financial, an Ontario credit union with roughly $1B AUM and about 95 staff, engaged GCC for embedded AI engineering across Finance, Compliance, Wealth, and Operations. Outcomes include a board-adopted AI policy, reconciliation automation in Finance, AML narrative tooling in Compliance, and Know Your Product (KYP) automation in Wealth. The engagement is ongoing.

## Engagement Model

1. **Book a call.** Thirty minutes on where the board is on AI, what is consuming the back office, and what the credit union would do with twenty member names on a Monday.
2. **Scope the first stage.** Most credit unions start with Stage 1. One fixed-scope proposal for that stage.
3. **Embed.** On site, with the credit union's team, inside their existing Microsoft environment.
4. **Stay through production.** Continued support between builds, including vendor calls and board questions.

## Resources

- [OSFI Guideline E-23 for credit unions](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/osfi-e-23) — whether E-23 binds a provincially regulated credit union, what the broadened model definition captures, the third-party vendor clause, and what proportional readiness looks like before May 1, 2027
- [AI Policy Template](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/ai-policy) — a free, ready-to-customize enterprise AI policy template, 14 sections covering governance, data handling, and procurement
- [Blog](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/blog) — writing on AI for credit union leaders
- [BCU Financial case study](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/blog/why-we-brought-ai-leadership-in-house-at-bcu-financial)

## Links

- [Book a Call](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/book)
- [Approach](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/#approach)
- [Stage 1: Credit union AI policy and board education](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/clear-the-runway)
- [Stage 2: Credit union back office automation](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/break-the-math)
- [Stage 3: Credit union member churn and growth analytics](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/approach/know-every-member)
- [Common Questions](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/#faq)
- [Case Study](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/#case-study)
- [About Nelson Lee](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/#about)
- [Full Content](https://thegeneralconsultingcompany.com/llms-full.txt)
- [Email](mailto:nelson@thegeneralconsultingcompany.com)