Daniel Ackerman

But another big one is capacity, whether a borrower will be able to repay a loan today and in the future.

And that's where the presence of AI, the threat of AI, or perhaps the opportunity presented by AI starts to impact a business model.

Lenders are concerned about whether AI is going to disrupt a borrower's entire industry.

David Schiff with FTI Consulting says a bank might think twice about lending to a company that provides services that AI can provide.

There's a threat where customers could substitute and or put pricing pressure on them.

On the other hand, Schiff says AI could make some borrowers more attractive to lenders.

A company that can use AI tools might be able to cut costs and pay off its debt more easily.

Where there is a lot of underlying expense tied to easily repeatable, digitizable tasks, a lot of banks are looking at that as a cost-save opportunity.

Schiff says it can be challenging to figure out whether AI poses an opportunity or a threat.

And it's something that the banks are having to look at and make judgment calls on.

And at the end of the day, they're making bets.

In some cases, banks are betting that their clients won't be affected.

That's Brad Bolton, CEO of Community Spirit Bank in Red Bay, Alabama.

He says his customers include contractors, timber harvesters, farmers, and truckers.

At least, he says, not within the next five or so years.

I'm Justin Ho for Marketplace.

So the Good Phone Project is we're upcycling payphones that we've acquired over the years, and we're providing free phone calls for people up to 20 minutes free, unless it's social services.

We really looked at the Rochester demographic, and that's where we're providing those calls.

Frontier Communications has ripped out all their payphones nationwide, but especially here in Rochester.

Right now, where we primarily place them are, we call them partners, because whether it's a homeless shelter, advocacy centers, our county libraries have reached out because they are having so many people using their front desk phones.