Which AI voice agents can handle inbound collections calls for UK lenders?

This guide sets out which AI voice agents can handle inbound collections calls for UK lenders, what five vendors say about inbound and collections calls, and the questions to put to any of them before you buy.

The short answer

Several AI voice agent vendors say they handle inbound or collections calls, including AINORA, Gradient Labs, MEGA.AI, PolyAI and Tovie AI. MEGA.AI, voice AI for debt collection and other regulated customer calls, runs its AI voice agent in production on inbound collections calls for two UK collections firms, BPO Collections and CCS Collect. Its agent verifies each caller on the firm's own rules before transfer, and at BPO Collections each verified caller reaches an agent with the verification status, a summary and the transcript. A vendor's website will not tell you whether its agent is ready for your inbound line. Ask for live UK references in collections, then check how the agent verifies callers, spots vulnerability, handles Breathing Space, takes payment and hands over to your team.

What does an inbound collections call need from an AI voice agent?

An inbound collections call is not an outbound reminder in reverse. The customer chose to call, often about a letter, a missed payment or a change in their circumstances, and may be in financial difficulty. For a UK lender or collection agency, the agent has to get nine things right.

1. Identity before disclosure. Verify the caller on your ID&V rules before saying anything about the debt, and handle failed or partial matches safely.
2. Vulnerability from the first words. The Consumer Duty and the FCA's guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers (FG21/1) expect firms to identify and respond to signs of vulnerability. Those signs can appear before the caller is verified, so the agent has to notice them and route the customer to the right help.
3. Breathing Space and debt advice. Breathing Space, the Debt Respite Scheme in England and Wales, protects a customer from creditor action on the debts it covers: while it lasts, creditors must not ask for payment of those debts, add interest, fees or charges, or take enforcement action. Protection runs from the date in the Insolvency Service's notice to the creditor. Separately, CONC requires a firm to pause recovery for a reasonable period when a customer says a debt adviser is helping them with a repayment plan. The agent has to recognise a mention of either and stop the collections conversation.
4. A safe way to pay. A secure payment link, a transfer to your payment line or card capture in the call. Card details taken in the call bring PCI DSS into scope, so ask for the vendor's current status.
5. Arrangements and affordability. Payment arrangements depend on the customer's circumstances and your CONC obligations. Know what the agent decides itself and what it refers to a person.
6. Disclosure and recording. The recording notice, whether the agent says it is an AI, and what happens if the customer objects or asks for a person.
7. A hand-over with context. A transfer that reaches your agent with the verification status and what was said, and a plan for when your team is closed.
8. A record of every call. Recording, transcript, the steps the agent took and any flags, and how long the vendor keeps each, so you can retain what your policy requires.
9. Your systems and your data. Integration with your telephony, dialler and account data, where outcomes go, and where call data is stored.

We cover the record in which voice AI platforms provide a full audit trail, and vulnerable customers in AI voice agents and vulnerable customers in collections calls.

Which AI voice agents say they handle inbound or collections calls?

The AINORA, Gradient Labs, PolyAI and Tovie AI statements below are quoted from their own websites, as checked on 4 November 2026, and vendors are listed in alphabetical order. They are the vendors' own words, not our assessment, and products change, so confirm the detail with each vendor. Not every page quoted describes inbound collections calls specifically; some cover inbound calls or collections in general.

• AINORA. Its page for UK lenders defines AI debt collection for UK lenders as "the use of voice AI agents to contact customers in arrears, run identity verification, conduct income and expenditure conversations, propose repayment plans, log outcomes to the lender's system of record, and escalate vulnerable cases to a human specialist."
• Gradient Labs. Its inbound collections page says: "Take every inbound collections call." and "Authenticate, explain the balance, capture promises to pay, and negotiate plans within your rules."
• MEGA.AI. In production for inbound identity verification and verified transfer at BPO Collections and CCS Collect. The agent works on approved wording only. Where a firm adds these steps to its journey, the agent can also flag vulnerability and mentions of Breathing Space or a debt adviser for transfer to the firm's team, and trigger the firm's payment platform to send a secure payment link by SMS or transfer the customer to the firm's payment line.
• PolyAI. Its financial services page says: "Answer every call immediately, 24/7, and enable customers to ask questions, make payments, and manage their accounts through natural conversations."
• Tovie AI. Its voice agents page lists "Inbound without the wait" and, under "Collections handled with care", "Instalment plans agreed on the call" and "Affordability and hardship routing".

Contact centre platforms and voice AI build platforms can also be set up for inbound collections. Whichever route you take, your firm designs, approves and tests the collections journey, so ask each vendor how much of the build it does and for live UK references in collections.

What does MEGA.AI's agent do on an inbound collections call?

MEGA.AI is a vendor too, so this section sets out what the agent does, and the next section what it does not do yet. Identity verification and transfer run in production at BPO Collections and CCS Collect, and payment links run for a client today.

• Answer. The agent answers with the firm's approved greeting and gives the recording notice. MEGA.AI recommends that the agent says it is an AI agent; the final decision is the firm's. A customer who says no to recording is transferred to a person straight away, and a customer can ask for a person at any point.
• Identify and verify. Caller ID or an account reference matches the caller to an account, then the firm's ID&V questions are checked against the account data the firm shares with MEGA.AI, under its pass and fail rules. The approved journey discloses nothing about the debt until the caller passes.
• Protect. Vulnerability indicators are checked on every customer turn from the first, before verification completes. If a customer mentions Breathing Space or a debt adviser, the agent can record a flag and transfer the call to the firm's team.
• Pay. The agent can trigger the firm's payment platform to send a secure payment link by SMS, or transfer the customer to the firm's payment IVR or team.
• Hand over. When a call needs a person, the agent transfers it to the firm's team. With an agent-desktop integration, as at BPO Collections, the verification status, a summary and the transcript arrive with the call.

BPO Collections, an FCA-authorised debt collection agency, went live three weeks after integration started. In the first six weeks the agent handled more than 90,000 inbound calls. In its first weeks of live operation it transferred more than 42,000 to agents, and the identification rate rose from 11% in launch week to 83% seven weeks later (case study). CCS Collect uses MEGA.AI for inbound security checks before a caller reaches one of its agents. See how each step works on our AI voice agent for inbound collections calls page.

Where does MEGA.AI stop?

• Card payments in the call are not live yet. Card payments by phone keypad are in development and will not be released until our PCI DSS assessment is complete. Until then, customers pay by secure payment link or through your payment line.
• The agent does not agree payment arrangements, and MEGA.AI does not make affordability or repayment decisions. The agent can ask your approved affordability questions. Income and expenditure conversations with IE Hub, as ELLIE, are planned for Q4 2026 with pilots under way, and payment plans that follow your affordability rules are in development. Decisions stay with your team.
• Plan for when your team is closed. The agent can answer when your team is closed, but a customer who needs a person still needs one. It can send an SMS with your team's direct number and opening hours.
• Detection is not perfect. No automated check catches every sign of vulnerability, and the agent acts on what the customer says, so keep your own checks against the Breathing Space notices you receive, and review the flags and a sample of calls as part of your own monitoring.
• Keep long-term records in your own systems. Recordings stay on our platform for 30 days. Transcripts and phase logs are kept while the contract runs and deleted 90 days after it ends. Keep what your own retention policy requires.
• Your firm decides the journey. MEGA.AI is not FCA-authorised. Your firm designs and approves the journey and keeps responsibility for CONC and the Consumer Duty.

What should you ask an AI voice agent vendor before you buy?

1. Which UK lenders or collection agencies run your agent on inbound collections calls today, and can we speak to one?
2. Show us one inbound call end to end: the verification, the record and the hand-over.
3. What does the agent say before the caller passes ID&V, and how does it handle failed or partial matches?
4. How does the agent spot vulnerability, and what does it do when a customer mentions Breathing Space or a debt adviser?
5. How can a customer pay during the call, what is your current PCI DSS status, and can we see your Attestation of Compliance and what it covers?
6. What does the agent decide itself about arrangements and affordability, and what does it refer to a person?
7. What reaches our agents on transfer, and what happens when our team is closed?
8. What record of each call do we keep, for how long, and where is our data stored?

Ask every vendor, including us, to answer all eight in writing, with evidence rather than slides. Book an executive briefing and we will walk you through one inbound call, using a demonstration call and a Call Phase Log like the one on our inbound collections page.

Frequently asked questions

Can an AI voice agent handle inbound collections calls for a UK lender?

Yes, for the steps your firm approves. MEGA.AI's agent verifies inbound callers and transfers them to agents in production at UK collections firms. It can also send payment links and flag vulnerability or Breathing Space for your team. Your firm stays responsible for the outcome under CONC and the Consumer Duty, so test how the agent handles vulnerable customers, Breathing Space and requests for payment arrangements before you go live, and keep monitoring outcomes once it is live.

Which UK collections firms use an AI voice agent on inbound collections calls?

BPO Collections, an FCA-authorised debt collection agency, uses MEGA.AI to verify inbound callers before transfer, and CCS Collect uses it for inbound security checks. Ask any vendor you assess for its own live UK references.

Can an AI voice agent take card payments on a collections call?

Some vendors say their agents take payments during the call. Card details taken in the call bring PCI DSS into scope, so ask for the vendor's current status. Today MEGA.AI's agent triggers your payment platform to send a secure payment link by SMS or transfers the customer to your payment line. Card payments by phone keypad are in development and will not be released until our PCI DSS assessment is complete.

What should an AI voice agent do when a customer mentions Breathing Space?

Recognise it, stop the collections conversation and pass the customer to your team, which applies your Breathing Space process. MEGA.AI's agent records a flag on the call and transfers the customer to your team. Breathing Space is the Debt Respite Scheme in England and Wales.