AI Will Replace Jobs and it is Starting Now

Here is one place where it is already starting: debt collectors.

That is not a fun job for anyone – neither the debt collector not the person they are trying to collect from.

So, why not automate it. After all, if you can do that, you don’t have to pay any salaries or any commissions.

And computers can make millions of calls a day. They could call every person in the company’s debt portfolio every day. With conversational AI getting better every day and chatbots doing pretty well already, this seems like a good solution for everyone but the human debt collector and the debtor.

Overall, debt in the U.S. is going up – to a record $16.9 trillion according to the New York Fed. Also, delinquency rates are going up. So, combining increasing debt, increasing interest rates and increasing delinquency rates is the perfect recipe for automation.

Here is what the robo-debt-collection software vendors are saying.

Meanwhile, Latitude ”resolves gaps in functionality while reducing the pressure on your agents and increasing recovery rates”; Katabat provides ”full omni-channel orchestration, true machine learning” and a “powerful collection strategy engine”; and TrueAccord runs an ”industry-leading recovery and collections platform powered by machine learning and a consumer-friendly digital experience.” TrueAccord also boasts of offering more empathetic debt collections experiences, which naturally are achieved through the hallmarks of compassion: “experimentation in A/B testing consumer research, and machine learning.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvjmm5/debt-collectors-want-to-use-ai-chatbots-to-hustle-people-for-money

The companies that buy delinquent debt for pennies love this. Don’t have to find people who love kicking people when they are down, no sick days. Computers don’t need bathroom or lunch breaks and they can make calls from one second after the legal start time in the morning to one second before the legal stop time at night.

It will be interesting to see how this works. I know that I find it real easy to hang up on robo calls. If debtors do the same then this industry will not get any traction. They are hoping that poor scared debtors will buy into this scheme. Only time will tell. Credit: Motherboard by Vice

by