The economics of AI debt collection
Pay per answered call, unanswered dials cost effectively nothing, elastic concurrent capacity. The unit-economics model human floors cannot reach - specific rates scoped to your portfolio inside a discovery call.
Pay-per-answered-call pricing scoped to portfolio volume and jurisdiction mix. No per-seat subscription. Book a 30-minute scoping call for your specific numbers.
The human-floor cost equation no longer works.
A 50-operator collections floor in the UK runs GBP 2.0m to GBP 2.5m fully loaded per year once you add salaries, employer NI, pension, training, attrition, supervision, premises, and technology stack. That floor produces around 25,000 outbound dials per day at peak utilisation and connects on 15 to 20% of them. The rest is empty seat-hours.
The per-attempted-call cost lands around GBP 1.50 to GBP 4.00 depending on your loading. The per-connected-call cost is 5 to 7 times that. The per-recovery cost is higher still because most connections do not convert. The math has been under pressure for a decade. Consumer Duty reporting obligations added to it. Regulated forbearance raised the conversational complexity. Multi-language requirements forced hiring decisions that do not pay back.
AI inverts the equation. You pay when a debtor actually answers and has a conversation. The 85% unanswered volume costs effectively nothing. Cost-per-recovered-pound typically drops 60 to 80% on routine portfolios with recovery lift of 15 to 30% from sheer reach. Your specific math depends on portfolio volume and jurisdiction mix - we calculate it together during a scoping call.
The cost drivers that shape your quote.
Pricing is portfolio-dependent. These are the levers we scope together before quoting specific rates.
Monthly answered-call volume
Per-call rates tier down with scale. Pilot portfolios, mid-market books, and enterprise 100k+ monthly-conversation contracts sit on different rate cards.
Regulatory complexity
UK FCA Consumer Duty, EU GDPR and AI Act, US FDCPA, cross-border portfolios each carry different compliance configuration and audit overhead.
Language mix
Single-language deployments are simpler. Multi-language portfolios across UK, EU and migrant-heavy books require voice persona and script tuning per language.
Systems integration
API integration with your collections platform (C&R Debt Manager, Tallyman, FICO, Excelero, Latitude, custom) scopes the one-time setup work.
Audit and reporting
Consumer Duty board reporting, vulnerability matrices, complaint routing, retention windows - configured once, applied per call.
Contract shape
Monthly rolling pilots versus annual commitments unlock different per-call economics. Enterprise terms are negotiated per portfolio.
Want a tailored cost model?
Bring your volumes and averages. We produce a bespoke ROI model in 30 minutes.
What changes in your P&L.
Not abstract savings - specific line items that shift when AI takes over the volume layer.
Seat cost
Falls dramatically. 50-seat floor replaced with specialists handling the 5% that needs human judgement. Fixed overhead becomes variable, volume-linked cost.
Training cost
Falls to zero on the AI layer. The compliance knowledge is configured once and applied forever. Specialists still train, but you have fewer of them to train.
Attrition cost
Collapses. AI never quits. Your remaining specialists have higher-value work, which correlates with lower attrition on that tier.
Contact rate
Rises 2 to 3x because you are no longer rationing dials by seat-hour availability. Every account gets attempted every day.
Recovery rate
Rises 15 to 30% from higher contact rate, better timing, and consistent top-performer conversation quality. The upside compounds over a full collection cycle.
Compliance cost
Falls because the compliance layer is the architecture. Consumer Duty board reporting becomes platform output, not a quarterly project.
Compliance coverage
Cost and ROI FAQ
Questions from CFOs, heads of collections, and procurement leads evaluating AI collections platforms.
You pay when a debtor actually answers and has a conversation with the AI. Unanswered dials, busy tones, voicemail, answered-and-hung-up-immediately - those cost effectively nothing. Around 85% of collection dials across every portfolio go unanswered, so the AI absorbs that volume at near-zero cost. Specific per-call rates are scoped to portfolio volume and jurisdiction mix inside a discovery call.
Ready to see your numbers?
Call the demo line to hear the product. Book the discovery call to get your tailored ROI model with pricing specific to your portfolio.
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