Discover how artificial intelligence in financial services is transforming the debt collection industry. In this episode of Receivables Podcast, Adam Parks dives into the future of debt recovery with Justin Miller and Nguyen Nguyen from Kompato. Learn how leveraging AI to improve consumer experience is revolutionizing collections and empowering consumers worldwide.

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Adam Parks (00:01.566)

Hello everybody, Adam Parks here with another episode of Receivables Podcast. Today I'm here for a very exciting discussion. We're gonna start digging into the voice AI side of the world and what generative AI looks like in the debt collection industry. And today I've got two very sharp gentlemen with me. have Nguyen and Justin who are coming to us from Kompato.

Very excited to have you guys here today. Thank you so much for coming on and spending a little time with me sharing your insights.

Justin (00:32.682)

Thanks, no thanks for having us.

Adam Parks (00:34.908)

Absolutely, so for anyone who has not been as lucky as me to get to know you a little bit over the last couple of months, and I'm hoping everyone will take a minute to chat with you at RMAI, because if you can tell how excited I am, I can only imagine how excited the operators are gonna be. But Justin, maybe starting with you, could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to the seat that you're in today?

Nguyen (00:34.914)

My pleasure.

Justin (00:56.507)

Absolutely. So, you know, real quickly, I've been in the industry for roughly 25 years. I am actually one of those guys that started off on the phones and sort of worked their way up. And, you know, through that time, quite frankly, you know, I've seen a lot of change, but there are some consistencies that I've seen, particularly around consumer behavior and the agent behavior and the interaction of the two. And so anything that I think can help

the engagement with the consumer I'm a huge fan of. And so, you know, a little over a year ago, I stumbled across the Trusting Social team, got to know them real deeply and, you know, understand their technology, which we'll talk about more in a minute. you know, at the very core, what it does is it engages consumers where they want to be engaged and it gives them the opportunity to meaningfully work on their

financial situation, right? And I think it does so in a way that opens itself up to a stronger solution for them. So that's why I'm here today and excited to be here.

Adam Parks (02:03.166)

Well, very excited to get some more of your insights for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I also did a five minute pitch with Justin where I got an opportunity to actually interview the bot. That was pretty cool. I'll link that down below so everyone can go take a peek at that as well. But when for you, you've been a man of the globe and developing AI success all over the place. Talk to us a little bit about how you got to the seat that you're in today.

Nguyen (02:27.95)

Absolutely. I was born and raised in Vietnam and came through US in 2000 with a PhD in game theory and econometrics and then moved to New York and worked for Barclays Bank across global portfolios. During Barclays time, I discovered that due to the lack of credit bureau data,

Barclays' lending business in Africa has been underdeveloped because we cannot get enough data to access credit worthiness of the consumers.

Justin (03:04.474)

Thank you.

Nguyen (03:14.638)

Then I realized that by leveraging alternative data, such as social data and telecom data, we can actually supplement the existing tools for credit assessment, for providing credit access to consumers in emerging markets. So in 2013, I founded Tracing Social with a mission of providing alternative credit score to consumers in Asia.

Justin (03:20.55)

Okay.

Nguyen (03:44.152)

goal of scoring 1 billion consumers by 2020. Exactly seven years later, in October 2020, we provide credit score to 1 billion consumers. Today, we service nearly 100 banks and financial institutions in South Asia and India. And helping over 20 million consumers have access to formal credit, which otherwise they cannot access to.

My personal mission has been to reduce financial suffering, which is the root of most of the suffering in modern world. And for Asia, the biggest bottleneck is the access to credit. So we have done everything we can, leveraging AI and big data to help consumers

Justin (04:16.237)

you

Nguyen (04:43.052)

borrow at a much lower cost comparing to traditional solutions. So today we are the biggest alternative credit scoring provider in the world. One of the biggest ECIC and digital identity provider to the banks in South Asia. And we have significant impact on helping the underbanked consumers in the region to get access to credit.

Two years ago, we were.

Justin (05:16.341)

you

Nguyen (05:18.68)

violently woke up by the Chat GPT and I saw a massive opportunity to further lower the cost of credit to consumers thanks to generative AI. Furthermore, it can add a lot of mileage to financial literacy and personalization of financial products. So we invest very heavily to generative AI.

Justin (05:44.58)

you

Nguyen (05:48.206)

in customer operations for lending business. So we were the first one to launch AI-based customer support, the cross-sell AI voice AIs in South Asia, and lately the first voice AI collections for South Asian banks.

Nguyen (06:18.878)

Our 10-year vision is to help the banking industry transform into AI banking, where 90 % of the human work will be replaced by AI with very high personalization at a much lower cost than today. So I believe that the banking industry will eventually transition into

Justin (06:19.48)

Okay.

Nguyen (06:48.64)

A highly efficient format similar to the textile industry, which used to account for 20 % of global GDP three, centuries ago. Now, three to 4 % of global GDP. At the same time, basically everybody in the world can have access to good clothing. In the same way, the financial industry may be accounting for

Justin (07:00.76)

Thank you.

Nguyen (07:15.79)

a few percent of GDP, but everybody get access to credit. That'd be my dream.

Why we are deploying these products in South East Asia. We have seen a lot of adoption both from the consumer side and the bank side. And then we realized that for our particular solution of generative AI for customer operation, it works globally, which is very different from our alternative credit scoring business, where it's work best in

Justin (07:28.279)

Okay.

Nguyen (07:51.128)

the emerging markets where the consumer credit data is not available. So we look at the US and ask ourselves what we can do to the US consumers. And we find out that American consumers

Nguyen (08:10.924)

have a different kind of financial suffering, where 60 % of them living paycheck to paycheck, despite the fact that America is the richest country in the world. So our mission is to help the American consumers to overcome the paycheck to paycheck situation, building their financial safety net, improve the financial literacy.

Justin (08:23.927)

you

Nguyen (08:39.023)

and help them get out of debt more sustainably.

That's why we decided to come to the US.

Adam Parks (08:45.876)

in that make

Justin (08:46.102)

Thank

Adam Parks (08:48.752)

That makes a lot of sense. And it's interesting because from a global perspective, think Americans, even Americans that are in the credit profession, failed to realize how different the credit environment is in different countries. know, Brazil only instituted a credit scoring system, I want to say in the last decade and same in a variety of countries around the world. know India is just in the midst of really getting started with their credit.

reporting systems and looking at alternative information to understand credit worthiness, I think is ultimately going to become significantly more important in the United States as well. Especially as you start to look at the federal government attempting to, let's say, devalue a credit score and devalue the opportunity for a lender to actually use a score. we could start going down the rabbit hole about medical credit reporting and all of the other things that are happening from a

Justin (09:12.894)

So.

Justin (09:27.415)

Okay.

Adam Parks (09:40.02)

credit scoring perspective that I would deem to be concerning for the US economy. I think it's incredible that you guys have started to approach that across a variety of countries. I do have one question about kind of as you've started moving through that, that spread across Asia, do you find that more of the countries are working together or are you having to deploy this technology independently to each of those nations?

Nguyen (10:06.2)

The regulators in Asia exchange ideas and learn from each other quite proactively. for example, we got the first, the so-called innovative credit scoring license in Indonesia. And at the same time, regulators in Indonesia was talking to other neighboring countries.

Justin (10:06.678)

Okay.

Adam Parks (10:14.247)

Okay.

Nguyen (10:34.318)

And then we get into the sandbox for credit scoring in India. And then later on, we leveraged the success in Vietnam, Indonesia to go to the Philippines. And they already hear about us. So that has been a very supportive, proactive, and fast-sided regulatory environment that for the...

Nguyen (11:03.916)

the FinTech revolution and the landing revolution in South Asia and India in the last decade.

Adam Parks (11:10.964)

Interesting for me, I'm just trying to understand that I've spent a lot of time on that side of the world, but not so much in the financial product. So it's interesting to hear those differences. And now you're applying your

Justin (11:19.061)

Okay.

Adam Parks (11:24.456)

innovation, attention, and the incredible team that you've built to really focus on deploying technology within the United States. So can we talk a little bit about some of the barriers that you think the industry has faced with generative AI from a voice perspective? If we look at the TransUnion 2024 industry or the debt collection industry report, we talk about how the voice AI has been the slowest to be adopted across the industry. Any insights as to

why the industry has had challenges deploying that particular technology in the past.

Justin (11:57.84)

So I want to, I absolutely do. And I know when we'll have maybe a different perspective, but I want to go back a step and sort of explain Adam to you that.

When I reached out to Trusting Social, because I kind of stumbled upon them through Crunchbase and saw a series C-Raise that caught my attention, I was like, who the heck are these guys? I did my own research and I learned all about their scoring, right? Did not know anything about their AI. I actually reached out to them regarding the scoring. For some of the stuff that you just mentioned and that Wynn talked about, I think that's another topic for another day, but at a high level, what I do know is that in my world, when it comes to credit scoring and using that as a means to determine

effort and sloping, et cetera, and intensity with our consumer base, it is literally the least predictive data point in our industry, right? Yet it's so heavily used. And so it makes no sense to me. And I saw what they were doing. And I actually reached out to these guys and said, hey, I saw what you're doing on the scoring. I would love to bring some sort of similar score into the US, not necessarily to lend, but as a means for me to identify consumers who I can potentially have a better engagement with, right? And make it dynamic and do it, you

daily, right? So I can see who is or isn't the right folks to reach out to and potentially who, how to reach out to them. So that was the stage that I set to reach out to these guys and understand who they were and what they could possibly do for me. And within 10 minutes of the first call, they talked to me about AI. And this goes back to your question. When does not know this? They sucked the air right out of my sails because I am so deeply skeptical, right? I have tried to use AI,

other products that claim to have AI in our space a couple of times and they've all failed miserably. And what I've come to learn is that the technology needed to build meaningful chat AI or voice driven virtual agents just is so astronomically expensive that no one currently in the US is doing it. Right. And so there's that. And I think those that are doing voice stuff, I'll call it in the US, our industry is not in scope.

Justin (14:09.106)

Right? We're not meaningful enough to them. And so when they said that, I was like, boy, here we go again. Right? And so they gave me this demo live and they actually called my phone and I was blown away. And then I was like, okay, this is a parlor trick. There has got to be something behind the curtain. And so I just say, my answer to your question is all that skepticism. Cause I went right through the gamut. And I, you know, since then I've learned that behind the curtain is actually a really large engineering team.

that knows what they're doing and has deep expertise and works around the clock to make it work. But yeah, so I think the skepticism is a very big deal. And then secondarily, I think there is some concern around what potentially regulatory or compliance issues that may come up whenever you use any technology, right? And that's always part of every discussion. But at the end of the day, I think it's just skepticism around the technology.

Adam Parks (15:04.6)

I think that's part of And I think part of it was the barrier to entry to actually getting something rolling, right? The amount of computing power that was required if you look at some of the price points for some of those larger organizations. And the first organizations to sell this type of technology into the debt collection industry were really not focused on us. As you mentioned, they were more focused on like airlines and you know, they want to work for Apple or whoever else. They were looking for much bigger fish than like

one company is larger than our whole industry. And so I feel like we just weren't getting that same level of attention. So organizations started trying other things, or they just started trying to brick things together, right? Like, let me just add a layer on top of this platform or a layer on top of that platform and call that a new platform. But that's not really how AI is working. And even if we look at the $500 million investment that SoftBank committed to,

right after the inauguration. I think AI is something that's gonna be here to stay and we're gonna require that kind of infrastructure. So how as an industry are we going to be able to start to leverage this type of technology? When you think about conversational AI in your mind as an operator from the space, is this more about inbound, outbound? Like what's the key aspect and key play here for success?

Justin (16:28.445)

Well, first and foremost, it has to be both, right? I think you have to be able to take on the inbound and outbound. And so that's a huge element. The other part of it is, how does the bot actually speak to the consumer? Like, what do they say? And how do they say it? And

Adam Parks (16:30.516)

Okay.

Justin (16:47.48)

You know, in my experience, what's great about the bot is that number one, it's consistent, right? And it can be tuned to be or have its own personality. In our case, we focus on the empathy, right? And so we want all of the engagements with our consumers to be highly empathetic, right? And there's a lot of reasons for that. But at the end of the day, our bot will do that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, inbound, outbound, without fail. And that is great. The other thing I would say is in the...

consumers themselves, when they pick up the phone, or if they answer the call, or they call us, there is going to be, before the first hello, a sense of concern on their part, and how is this conversation gonna go? And they are in a fight or sort of state at that moment. And unfortunately, a lot of human interactions don't go well, right? For a variety of reasons, right? And so,

I think if we can cut down on that friction and actually get them, and that sounds crazy, but excited to engage with us, and then we're already off to the right direction. And we're there, right? We're getting there. And that's, for me as an operator, the most important piece.

Adam Parks (18:03.24)

Fair. I think that it's a, I think when we look to deploy this technology and for anyone who has not actually seen it, go check out the five minute pitch. That was a super cool experience for me personally. I have been challenging AI voice companies in the space to let me interview their bot or talk to their bot on air since.

I wanna say it's probably been about four or five years and you're the first group that has given me the opportunity to actually go through that process, have that conversation. I had an ear to ear smile throughout the whole thing because I find it to be very interesting, especially as an individual. When I put on my consumer hat, I'm using more of that type of technology when I'm calling into American Airlines or whatever, because it's saving me the wait time. And I think just like...

This is a really bad parallel, but I'm going to try and use it anyway, similar to the way that Amazon changed my view on e-commerce, right? I was not really a big online buyer in the 90s and in the early 2000s because I wanted the product that purchased right now, right? But Amazon bringing it down to two days to one day shipping really started to change my mind frame. And I think some of this AI technology is going to go through a similar path with the consumers, right? At first, there's this resistance. What is

What is happening? What is my experience gonna be? After a couple of experiences, when you hear you can wait for 20 minutes to talk to an operator, or you can talk to this bot right now, I'm probably gonna talk to the bot right now, and do something other than what I do to the IVRs, which is scream operator, operator, operator at the top of my lungs repeatedly.

Justin (19:31.517)

you

Adam Parks (19:39.784)

As you can tell, not the most patient guy out there. So I just want to be realistic with it. But the way that the bot was interacting with me and I thought the level of empathy that was being provided was really accurate. I think I said something along the lines of like, can't pay my bill. My car broke down and then it started talking with me about what that experience was like for me. It wasn't straight to the, you know, pay it in full. It gave me some opportunities to speak back. sounded like it was listening to me and the reactions were non-scripted.

Nguyen (19:41.379)

Yeah.

Justin (19:57.777)

Okay.

Adam Parks (20:08.736)

It's not like you guys gave me a script and were like, here, read this to the bot. I just got to interact with it naturally based on what I wanted to do. I thought that was super cool. So what advice would you give to organizations that are starting to explore the use of this type of technology? What's a good first step for organizations to start to be able to deploy this?

Justin (20:31.245)

Again, I would really love Wynn's opinion here. But from my perspective, when I speak to other operators, the first thing I want them to do is do what you just did, right? And do what you did and have that interaction. They need to understand, like, what does it actually do? What does it not do? Right? And we need to be able to tell them that very transparently, here's what it's capable of, and we can show you, right? And if we can't show you, then we shouldn't be talking about it. And then secondly, and they need to understand

enough of the technology so that it's not scary, right? And if you understand how it's put together, how it actually works, what are the guardrails in place that prevent certain things from happening or guaranteeing that certain things will always happen, I think that sets people's minds at ease. And we work on that constantly in our conversations. And we are building white papers and putting them together with compliance and legal experts around the world. But they need to take the time to investigate that, right? And I think once they do both of those, right, they can interact.

interact with the bot and get comfortable knowing that, OK, this thing is real and it actually will engage with my consumer base very empathetically. And then secondly, understand the technology and what goes in underneath. It puts people's minds at ease.

Adam Parks (21:40.568)

I think that's a pretty good approach. Now, when from your perspective, right, you've built this incredible global team, what kind of people do you have to put on a team in order to build a piece of technology like this? I have to assume you can't just like, you know, put an ad in the paper and start bringing together this type of team. What's your secret?

Nguyen (22:01.922)

We are an AI company, so we build the company from day zero to hire the top 1 % talent. the first three software engineers, interesting social, won four national Olympiad in computer science. And at some point, we have more PhDs than non-PhDs.

Justin (22:31.192)

Okay.

Nguyen (22:32.312)

Today we have two dozen PhDs, probably 60 masters in computer science, machine learning, and AI. And building a culture of the elite, focusing on social impact to attract certain kind of top talent to join the company. And then build a culture of insight-driven, meaning that our

goal is to discover the hidden truth that nobody else discovered so that we can build disruptive products that have biggest impact we can. So we have been following that compass for the last 12 years and so far we believe that we deliver the impact to probably over 100 million consumers so far.

Adam Parks (23:30.108)

And so as you enter the US marketplace here and you and I met for the first time at the ACA conference in San Diego and had a chance to kind of sit down. But now that you've had some time to kind of organize your your planning, how are you approaching the US industry? Is it just as a technology organization or what is that? What does that engagement look like for an organization that wants to?

Nguyen (23:55.522)

I want to follow earlier question of what stakeholders in this industry should look at AI at a broader context, right? So we had a strong traction in Asia where regulators have been very far-sighted and very supportive of financial inclusion and applying technology to bring down the cost of servicing.

Justin (23:55.919)

Okay.

you

Nguyen (24:25.592)

consumers, right? Because the vast majority of Asian consumers are under buying lower income and without technology, you cannot serve them, right? So I think the view of the regulator will change over time depending on how much social impact the AI and technology can bring.

The second factor is the AI will drive the cost down very significantly, and it allows you to rethink.

the entire business model, right? For example, if you can engage with consumer, you know, every week, just to check on how they're doing and what else you can do to help them, then you can build trust with them much better. And you don't have to rush them to make a prepayment, you know, in the first call, for example, right? So the business model, the engagement model, the...

Nguyen (25:30.062)

profitability of the industry and of each company will change very drastically. The third element that I want to add is the market dynamics will change a lot. For example, we work with one of the biggest debt buyers in Southeast Asia. They were on the path to 3,000 debt collectors.

And working with us, we came up with a plan to reduce it to 300, but increasing salary by 50%. And the collectability will be multiple times higher than what they're doing right now by dividing the jobs between the AI and the human and by the redesigning the engagement strategy and even the business model. Similarly, we work with one of biggest commercial banks in Southeast Asia.

Nguyen (26:27.752)

And they said that for this year, they want to drastically cut the debt sales because they want to leverage our technology, which is much stronger in terms of compliance comparing to debt sale. And in the meantime, they can maintain the relationship with the customers and give them a second chance to get access to credit again.

And last one I to highlight is that

much of the banking industry is designed around misalignment of incentives, right? So because of, because humans are greedy, right? So that's why the banks have a maker and a checker and then a manager and then a supervisor and then they have auditor and so on. They have to be a big buildings to signal that they are credible and so on.

Justin (27:14.341)

you

Nguyen (27:31.63)

Within collections, have the problem of the collectors want to maximize the short-term impact. have the Asians want to maximize the incentive. And all of these misalignment of incentives create poor reputation, short-sighted behavior, and a lot of social consequences.

But AI does not have this misalignment of incentive. It follows what we ask them to do. And because of that, I believe that the consumers will be better, the collection agents will have a better job, and the creditors, the debt buyers, and other stakeholders in the ecosystem will have a much simpler organization, much lower cost.

Justin (28:10.061)

Thank you.

Nguyen (28:28.706)

the economy overall will be improved.

Adam Parks (28:33.506)

So from a compliance perspective, we know that that's always a hot button topic as we talk about artificial intelligence. And so, know, I think as the CFPB has talked about AI and right, like the black box, feels like the type of technology that you're rolling out is less of that, let's call it high risk black box. To me, it's that black box is the scoring issues, right? It's things that might have a demographic impact.

Justin (28:39.5)

Thank you.

Adam Parks (28:57.716)

on those individual consumers or on a specific subset of consumers, but it doesn't feel like the voice AI necessarily runs those same risks because it seems to be a more compliance driven, I'm gonna call it if and then type of communication or thought process versus, you know, being a little bit more Yosemite Sam. Any thoughts on kind of how that compliance might be a little bit different from a voice perspective?

Nguyen (29:27.37)

Absolutely.

First, the compliance and the auditing of the voice AI would be significantly, I would say, like 100 times easier than auditing millions of phone calls. For example, the instruction to the AI can be and should be transparent.

and available immediately to regulators whenever they want to check. And it doesn't have to be long. It can be a few pages. And so that provides the first check in terms of compliance. The second check is 100 % of our calls, including human agent calls and AI calls.

are recorded, transcribed, and analyzed item by item of the federal and state regulations to check if it's compliant or not. So it's a real-time compliance check, which was impossible before. The third layer is even before the AI agent speaks to the consumer, we can actually

Justin (30:25.004)

you

Nguyen (30:52.878)

do a compliance check in the thinking, right? So before it generates a content, we have another AI agent that checks if the generated content is compliant and showing sympathy and so on before it actually vocalizes and transfers to the So we have a much more nuanced

Adam Parks (31:03.432)

you

Nguyen (31:23.502)

level of control that was not possible with human agents. So we do engage with CFPB and other regulators in Asia. And once they understand that the level of transparency and the nuanced control of compliance, they tend to be quite supportive.

Adam Parks (31:50.734)

That makes a lot of sense, right? That kind of feels intuitive on some sense because one, you've got that multi-layered check, but even the information that you're transmitting is a little bit more refined than I think running scoring models, right? The probability of a technology like this, for example, redlining, know, is probably the probability.

Justin (32:00.362)

you

Adam Parks (32:13.588)

just doesn't exist the same way as it would in some sort of a scoring methodology that would be pushing accounts down different treatment methodologies. And I think that's really where the federal government, the CFPB in particular, is really focusing their time and efforts in terms of trying to understand or, I mean, not even that they're necessarily regulating AI yet, but threatening to regulate within the space. I find that to be pretty interesting.

From your perspective though, is there anything else that you want the industry to know before you guys are out there at the RMAI conference engaging with everybody and starting to showcase this technology beyond kind of these online discussions?

Justin (32:53.823)

Yeah, so yes. And the first one is, we are all on the team very passionate about what this can do for their organization. And we understand their time is precious, but we would love

every ounce of time that they can give us so that we can demonstrate it to them. Right. And I think it's important that, you know, for those that are going to RMAI, that they connect with us, for those that are not, that they try to connect with us. And we want to demonstrate to them not just the technology, but then have a meaningful conversation about what it can actually do for them. And, you know, when we speak with them, it's not going to be me or a salesperson. It's, it's, it's Nguyen it is me. But we have a compliance team member, we have legal or attorneys with us. We will have actual

engineers and product developers who've built the AI who can interact with technology folks. And we want to have all those conversations so that they can understand what this is and what this can do for them as well.

Nguyen (33:48.93)

From my perspective, we have deployed our AI agents in Southeast Asia at a very large scale, tens of millions of calls. Our agent can talk to consumers 30 minutes to an hour. We have seen the industry responding to these new capabilities and rethinking their business model. I believe that...

generative AI and artificial general intelligence will change the banking landscape completely and the ARM industry completely. So we'd love to engage in the discussion of how each of the stakeholders can transform themselves to survive this and thrive in this new era of AI.

Adam Parks (34:42.1)

Well, it sounds like you guys are right on the correct path at the correct time and going into the right location to talk to the right people. So it kind of feels like a perfect storm for the debt collection industry to really start taking advantage of the opportunities that artificial intelligence includes, you know, from a from a voice perspective. And I'm really interested to see the traction that you guys start to get now that I've had an opportunity to experience that technology and see how

how that adoption rate in the report changes from 2024 to 2025 now that you guys are actively engaged in rolling out a piece of technology that meets those objectives for the debt collection industry provides the cost savings that you're looking for, and ultimately provides a good consumer experience. And I think the debt collection industry, if we've learned one thing over the last couple of years, the consumer experience is what matters.

Justin (35:34.186)

Okay.

Adam Parks (35:41.464)

And being able to provide these consumers with a good experience, being able to take them off of talking to another live human, taking, I believe we talked about it in the five minute pitch, taking the shame out of the equation and enabling those consumers to really have a positive debt resolution experience, I think is the objective of every debt collection agency and debt buyer out there. And I hope that they take the time to chat with you guys and experience the technology for themselves.

Justin (35:59.677)

you

Justin (36:10.907)

Awesome. Thank you, Adam. Thanks for having us.

Adam Parks (36:13.222)

Absolutely for you for those of you that are watching if you have additional questions you'd like to ask Nguyen, Justin or myself you can leave those in the comments on LinkedIn and YouTube and we'll be responding to those if you want to reach out to these guys directly to meet at our may I'll leave

their contact information below as well so that you can reach out and have that conversation. Or if you have additional topics you'd like to see us discuss, you can leave those in the comments below as well. And hopefully I can get Justin and Wynn to come back at least one more time to help me continue to create great content for a great industry. But until next time, gentlemen, thank you so much for your insights. Every conversation with you is exciting and I walk out with a big smile. So I hope everybody takes the opportunity to do the same at the conference.

Nguyen (36:56.238)

Thank you very much, Adam.

Justin (36:57.494)

Thanks.

Adam Parks (36:58.578)

And for those of you that are watching, we'll see you all again soon. Thank you, everybody.

Revolutionizing Debt Collection with Voice Generative AI

Introduction: Redefining Debt Collection with AI

Did you know that 60% of American consumers live paycheck to paycheck? Debt collection is undergoing a revolutionary shift, driven by artificial intelligence. In this episode of Receivables Podcast, Adam Parks engages with Kompato’s Justin Miller and Nguyen Nguyen to explore how voice generative AI is transforming the industry.

This blog breaks down the episode’s actionable insights, focusing on rethinking debt collection strategies with AI to enhance compliance, build trust, and improve the consumer experience.

Key Insights: What You’ll Learn

1. AI’s Role in Financial Services

Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s an integral part of the financial services industry today. In debt collection, AI enables real-time compliance monitoring, reducing the risk of regulatory violations and ensuring every interaction adheres to federal and state guidelines. This eliminates the inconsistencies often associated with human-led processes, providing creditors with greater confidence in their operations.

Generative AI takes this a step further by engaging consumers with empathy and personalized communication. Unlike scripted responses, voice AI adapts to consumer concerns dynamically, creating trust and fostering long-term engagement. As Justin Miller notes, “Voice AI speaks with empathy, creating trust and reducing consumer anxiety.” This shift marks a significant departure from traditional, transactional debt collection methods, paving the way for more humanized and effective solutions.

2. Enhancing Consumer Experience with AI

A positive consumer experience is paramount in debt collection, and AI-driven tools are redefining how this is achieved. With 24/7 availability, AI ensures consumers can access support at their convenience, breaking down the barriers of time zones and business hours. This accessibility is crucial for improving consumer satisfaction and engagement.

Moreover, interactive bots powered by AI can handle complex queries, guiding consumers through their repayment options with clarity and empathy. Nguyen Nguyen emphasizes this, stating, “Our mission is to remove friction and build a positive consumer relationship.” By anticipating and addressing consumer needs proactively, AI not only resolves immediate concerns but also builds a foundation of trust, transforming how consumers perceive and interact with debt collectors.

3. Rethinking Debt Collection Strategies

Traditional debt collection strategies often rely on volume-based approaches, with collectors focusing on maximizing short-term recoveries. AI is disrupting this model by enabling more targeted, scalable, and efficient strategies that prioritize long-term consumer relationships. Debt collection agencies are now empowered to segment their portfolios dynamically, reaching consumers with personalized strategies based on their specific situations.

This shift allows agencies to integrate cost-effective AI solutions while reducing reliance on large teams of agents. Nguyen Nguyen shares a compelling example: “We are reducing agent teams while increasing consumer satisfaction.” By integrating AI tools, agencies can allocate human agents to higher-value tasks while AI handles repetitive processes, creating a seamless and efficient operational model that benefits both creditors and consumers.

Actionable Tips: How to Leverage AI in Debt Collection

  1. Deploy Empathy-Focused AI Bots: Ensure your AI communicates with empathy, helping consumers navigate their financial challenges.
  2. Use AI for Compliance Checks: Integrate real-time compliance tools to minimize risks and improve efficiency.
  3. Leverage Consumer Data Responsibly: Use AI to analyze behavior and provide tailored repayment solutions without breaching privacy.

Timestamps: Key Moments from the Episode

  • 0:00 – Introduction: Meet Kompato’s Justin Miller and Nguyen Nguyen
  • 5:30 – How AI Empowers Consumer Engagement
  • 12:45 – Voice Generative AI and Real-Time Compliance
  • 22:15 – Building Empathy-Driven AI Solutions
  • 31:30 – The Future of Debt Collection with AI

Frequently Asked Questions About AI in Debt Collection

Q: How does AI improve the consumer experience in debt collection?
A: AI enhances consumer experience by providing 24/7 support, empathetic communication, and tailored repayment options. These tools reduce friction and foster trust in debt resolution processes.

Q: What compliance benefits does AI provide?
A: AI enables real-time compliance monitoring, ensuring interactions adhere to regulatory requirements. This reduces the risk of violations and improves transparency for auditors and regulators.

Q: How can AI reduce operational costs in debt collection?
A: AI automates routine tasks, such as answering common consumer questions or initiating payment plans, allowing agencies to optimize their resources and focus on more complex cases.

Q: Is AI capable of addressing complex consumer queries?
A: Yes, AI-powered bots are designed to handle complex queries by leveraging advanced natural language processing (NLP). These bots provide clear and accurate responses while maintaining an empathetic tone.

Q: What are the future implications of AI for the debt collection industry?
A: AI will continue to drive innovation by enabling predictive analytics, real-time portfolio segmentation, and personalized consumer engagement. These advancements will redefine industry standards and improve overall efficiency.

Supplementary Resources

Conclusion and Call to Action

The debt collection industry is on the brink of a transformative AI-driven era. As this podcast episode reveals, innovations like voice generative AI are improving compliance, building consumer trust, and enabling scalable solutions.

What do you think about AI’s role in financial services? Share your thoughts in the comments or join the conversation on LinkedIn.

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About Company

Logo with the text "kompato" and an abstract blue design element.

At Kompato, we redefine debt collection with cutting-edge technology, compliance-first practices, and a customer-centric approach. Our AI-driven platform ensures efficient, 24/7 operations, maximizing recovery rates while maintaining compliance and transparency. We prioritize seamless integration and personalized support, empowering businesses to manage debt recovery effortlessly.

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