1. Why lenders use AI for collections
Most of the work in early collections is reaching people: reminding every borrower before the due date, following up in the first days after it, and recording what each borrower promised. Teams rarely have the capacity to reach the whole bucket, and quality varies between agents. An AI voice agent can call every account on schedule, follow the same approved script every time, and log a recording, transcript and outcome for each call.
2. The rules that apply
RBI's 2022 directions on recovery agents say lenders and their agents must not call borrowers before 8:00 am or after 7:00 pm for the recovery of overdue loans, and must not harass or intimidate borrowers in any way, including persistent calls or abusive language. The lender stays responsible for the agents it engages — automated ones included.
TRAI's rules on commercial communication (DND and DLT) govern promotional calls; reminders to your own borrowers are service calls, but they should still go out from registered numbers. The DPDP Act 2023 covers the borrower data you use: process it only for the purpose it was collected for, keep it secure, and honour correction and erasure requests where the law allows.
This is a summary, not legal advice — confirm the details with your compliance team.
3. A compliant AI collections flow
1) Pre-due (a few days before the EMI date): reminder call plus a payment link on WhatsApp. 2) Due date: a short confirmation call for accounts that have not paid. 3) 1–30 days past due: a polite follow-up that asks for a payment date, records the promise to pay and schedules a call for that date. 4) Escalation: disputes, hardship requests, anyone upset or anyone who asks for a person goes to your team. 5) Stop rules: cap attempts per account per day and week, honour "please don't call me" requests, and keep overdue-recovery calls inside 8 am–7 pm.
4. What a good AI collections call sounds like
Say who is calling and on whose behalf, confirm you are speaking to the borrower before mentioning the loan, state the amount and due date, offer an easy way to pay, and ask for a date if they cannot pay today. Never threaten, never shame, never discuss the loan with anyone else. For example: "Namaste Rahul ji, main XYZ Finance ki taraf se bol rahi hoon. Aapki ₹4,250 ki EMI 5 tareekh ko due hai — kya main aapko WhatsApp par payment link bhej doon?"
5. What to measure
Right-party contact rate (did you reach the borrower), promise-to-pay rate, promises kept, roll-forward rate between buckets, and complaints. Run AI calling on part of the portfolio first and compare it with a control group before rolling it out.
6. How BOLIFY AI fits
BOLIFY AI runs scripted reminder and follow-up campaigns in Hindi, English and Hinglish, records and transcribes every call, sends payment links on WhatsApp, captures promise-to-pay dates in the CRM and transfers calls to your team live. Automated calls only run between 9 am and 9 pm IST; schedule overdue-recovery campaigns to finish by 7 pm. The free trial is 14 days or 50 calls, whichever comes first.