An AI collection voice agent is software that makes reminder calls to borrowers who have missed a loan payment. It speaks with the borrower in an Indian language, such as Hindi, Tamil or Marathi. It understands the borrower's reply and answers it. It is a part of the lender's debt collection software.
Each call has three steps, repeated many times. Speech recognition converts the borrower's words into text. An AI language model reads the text and decides the next reply, following the lender's script. Then text-to-speech software speaks the reply aloud. The same technology is used in other voice bots, for example in customer service.
Say a beautician in Nashik misses an EMI of ₹4,800 on the 7th. The next morning, the agent calls her in Marathi. It tells her the amount due and asks when she can pay. She says she can pay on the 12th. The agent sends her a UPI payment link by SMS and records her promise. If she pays on the 12th, there is no further call.
The collection call is one of the largest uses of voice agents in India. There are three reasons. The calls are very frequent. They follow a fixed script. And they are expensive when people make them, because a lender may need lakhs of calls every month.
Collections is also where the rules matter most. The RBI limits when and how lenders may call borrowers. For example, calls are allowed only between 8 am and 7 pm, and the caller must never threaten the borrower. A voice agent must follow these rules on every single call. One advantage over people is that every call is recorded and can be checked by software. Some companies sell speech analytics, which is software that listens to recorded calls and checks them.
A voice agent cannot handle every call. If the borrower disputes the loan, or sounds distressed, the agent hands the call over to a person. Voice agents like these are one kind of AI customer service agent.