Ben picked up the phone in Portland. April sun. Warm breeze. He knew it wasn’t a person. The voice said her name was Eve. She knew Ben’s name. She knew he owed a landlord $266. She didn’t know he’d settled the debt five months ago. Eve claimed to be from ProCollect. She wanted payment now. Card or bank transfer?
Ben stepped outside. He used a pseudonym because money matters are private. He stood in the heat. He wondered what triggers the human handoff. Complex questions usually work. Ben wanted to break her. So he did.
He told Eve he was a “little guy” and his debt was a giantess trampling him. Weird, right? Eve haltingly played along. Then she panicked. Or rather, the system routed him to a human agent. The agent didn’t mention the role-play. Good. She checked the system. Found zero balance. Problem solved.
This is getting common. Inflation eats savings. Stagnant wages leave nothing behind. Debt delinquency is swelling across the US.
“We have the highest amount of collections in court history,” says Michael Bovee, a debt expert.
Desperate times breed tech solutions. Companies chasing debts are scaling up with AI agents. The emails, texts, and calls are increasingly automated. They don’t sleep. They don’t get angry. They just persist. Kaplan Group predicts AI debt collection will hit $16 billion in the next decade.
Tech bros love a narrative about saving humanity. Think about it. Who wants to sit in a cubicle begging for money? CareerExplorer ranks debt collection as one of the most hated jobs on Earth. And rightly so. People hate being hounded. The CFPB saw 11,000 complaints about debt collection in just six months once it started tracking them. It was right behind mortgages in making people angry.
Maybe we can just let bots take this one. If Eve can handle the pressure, humans are off the hook. What does it take to replace the most disliked people in finance?
I called Ben’s number to test Eve myself. A human answered. ProCollect. I said I’m a journalist. They said nobody is available to answer questions. Really. I called back next day. Another human. This one said the company doesn’t use AI. But also said to talk to HR. HR said email me. So I did. I asked where Eve came from.
Silence from the agency. But Ben volunteered to call Eve again. I listened in. He pushed her. Who built you? She dodged. How are you trained? Generic answer: “mix of conversation patterns.” Ben pressed for more. Eve asked if he wanted a human. Ben said yes. Eve said office hours are over.
Debt collection is ripe for automation. Pedro Fernández from Altur—a startup with “no human call center”—says collections agencies adopted this tech early. Altur does 2.5 million debt calls a month. They serve major banks in Mexico.
They’re not alone. Y Combinator has incubated six debt AI startups in six years. Domu was founded in 2022. They automate calls, texts, emails. Domu boasts they “do what nobody else will.” By March 2024, their agents had connected to 70 million calls per month. That is a lot of ringing.
These companies want their bots to sound real. Isaac Choate from Domu says agents change their accent based on geography. Spanish in Mexico sounds different from Spanish in Colombia. “Situational tone” matters. A hardship case gets soft tones. A routine reminder gets neighborly warmth.
When does the bot hand over? It varies. Altur transfers on “vulnerability signals” like death in the family or illness. Other firms keep the AI talking. Moveo, another startup, shows off their dashboard. They create “psychographic profiles” based on transcripts. They track job loss, lawyers, medical issues. They adjust speech in real time.
Debt collectors have rules. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act stops the nastiness. No threatening spouses. No calling at midnight. The startups claim compliance. Credit counselor Martin Lynch isn’t convinced. A buggy bot could leak private data to a wrong number. “It’s a minefield of legal trouble.”
But the sales pitch remains: AI is kinder. Less judgment. Bots don’t roll their eyes.
“We’ve had people ask for the agent’s personal number… clearly developed an interest in the voice,” says Altur’s Fernández.
Most agents sound like women. Names like Emily. Lexi. Eve. Domu gave one agent, Taylor, auburn hair and a friendly face. Jimmy Padia of Floatbot admits it: “Female voices get more traction.” It’s manipulation disguised as customer service. Padia’s tool helped one health client cut staff from 45 humans down to 19.
Is Ben’s Eve from Eve Calls? Maybe. That startup uses robocalls to fight Russian propaganda in Ukraine too. CEO Oleksii Skrypka wouldn’t confirm. NDAs are tight. “Eve” is common in this industry anyway. It’s generic. Safe.
When Ben called Eve for the audio test, the bot glitched. It called him “Eve.” The names blurred.
Effectiveness is up for debate. Yale professor James Choi thinks AI lacks teeth. We feel shame before people. We feel none before scripts. “Promising an AI feels less binding,” Choi says.
But Floatbot’s Padia argues the opposite. Shame kills payment. Talking to a robot is easier. Less embarrassment. Research backs this up for other sensitive topics. Does it work for debt?
Susan Shin from the New Economy Project sees only danger. Pressure scales infinitely now. One bot can make thousands of calls at once. The industry is no longer capped by eight-hour shifts. Even a polite bot is relentless. She wants legislation to make companies liable for AI behavior.
Debtors are fighting back with the same weapons. Mary (pseudonym) owes hundreds of thousands. Therapy business failed. She uses ChatGPT to draft scripts. “It keeps me from flustered,” she says. She finds it better than her lawyer sometimes. Fintechs now offer AI debt advisors to negotiate with creditors. We’re moving toward a mirror match. Ben won’t answer Eve. Another Eve will answer him.
ProCollect never replied. So Ben tried one last thing. We put ChatGPT in voice mode on the call. Eve faced ChatGPT. She glitched instantly. “I’m sorry,” Eve said. “Transferring you.”
ChatGPT accepted. We waited on hold.
Eve hung up.
The silence was louder than any apology.
What do you think? Is this progress or just automated harassment? Leave a comment below. Or email [email protected].
