MEGA.AI | July 2026 Newsletter
Welcome to the MEGA.AI Monthly Newsletter for July 2026
July has been a month of two conversations running in parallel: what the regulator now expects, and what the industry is actually ready to deliver. Deferred Payment Credit and BNPL came under FCA supervision on 15 July. Ofgem published its Consumer Vulnerability Strategy progress report. The Mills Review landed on AI in financial services. Three separate signals, one message: the evidence bar has moved, and horizon scanning is no longer a strategy exercise. It is operational compliance.
We also announced something we have been building quietly for months. Twelve cities. Three continents. One conversation, in person. Details below.
The Voice Intelligence Global Tour 2026/27
12 cities · 3 continents · 40 seats per evening · Invitation only
This industry changes over dinner tables, not banner ads. So across 2026 and 2027, we are setting twelve tables in twelve cities, spanning North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Each evening brings together 40 hand-picked senior leaders from collections, credit, utilities, banking, insurance, telecom and BPO. No exhibition stands. No hotel ballrooms. Every venue is a landmark building with a story of its own, chosen city by city. The programme is built around real deployments, not roadmaps. Live enterprise customers on stage, unscripted, with the identification rates, audit trails and regulatory experience to show for it.
Twenty years, one platform: the co-founders in conversation
LinkedIn Live · 17 July 2026
Peter and Martin have worked together for over twenty years. In this session they set out the thinking behind MEGA.AI, the markets the platform serves today, and why a deterministic architecture was a founding decision rather than a later correction. Kevin takes them through what comes next on both product and market development. The conversation turned to horizon scanning and embedding operational compliance, prompted by Deferred Payment Credit and BNPL falling under FCA supervision from 15 July 2026. For firms entering the perimeter, the affordability and vulnerability expectations arrive fully formed. There is no ramp.
It was also where Martin first sowed the seeds of the Global Tour.
Europe Reaches the AI Tipping Point in Collections
Across Europe, AI has officially moved beyond the pilot stage. What was once seen as an emerging technology is now becoming a core part of modern collections operations. Driven by economic pressure, rising customer expectations, and increasing regulatory requirements, organisations are adopting AI to automate routine interactions, improve customer engagement, and support more consistent, compliant decision-making.
The focus is also shifting. It’s no longer just about using AI—it’s about deploying AI that is reliable, transparent, and governed. As a result, enterprise-ready Voice AI, intelligent payment journeys, and compliance-first automation are becoming key priorities for collections leaders across Europe. The question is no longer “Should we use AI?” It is “How can we deploy AI safely and at scale?”
Source: SBS – “Why AI and Automation in Collections Should Be a Priority” (2026), highlighting that financial institutions are moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, with AI improving recovery rates, reducing operational costs, and enhancing customer satisfaction. (sbs-software.com)
The case for a Vulnerability Passport
Watch: Wayne Lloyd interviewed by Chris Warburton · VRS Conference, May 2026
Recorded at the VRS Conference after the FCA and ICO had set the scene on vulnerability management and data sharing, Wayne gives the plain English version of what the Passport and its monitoring service actually deliver. The Passport works alongside portfolio monitoring, so assessments stay current as a customer's circumstances change. On 22 May, Nigel Bryant of VRS and Wayne joined Martin and Kevin on our own LinkedIn Live for a livelier debate on what the Passport means for debt resolution and contact management, including new opportunities in ID&V and in protecting customers from scams and fraud. Watch that session
Securely linking the VRS with Priority Services Registers and provider CRM data should be a priority, and Citizens Advice has called for urgent action on exactly this. Affordability data sharing sits alongside it, with partners such as IE Hub and Policy in Practice, for instance around social tariffs. All of it has to fit inside the wider "tell us once" work, where consumer-consented data is non-negotiable and trust in how personal data is used and safeguarded is the whole game. We are delighted to be part of these initiatives. Smarter Contracts and VRS partnership announcement
Regulatory watch
DRCF calls for views on digital verification, synthetic media and deepfakes
Submissions close 14 August 2026
Can digital verification deliver innovation at scale without creating new problems for privacy, accountability and public trust? As synthetic media grows more sophisticated, are the frameworks keeping pace with real deployment and real misuse? And how do regulators help innovators earn public trust in new systems?The Mills Review flagged exactly these risk management challenges for firms adopting AI at scale. If you work in digital identity, AI, fraud prevention or compliance, this is a genuine opportunity to shape the regulatory conversation, and to build better operational compliance while it is still being written.
Read the call for input and submit
The Mills Review on AI in financial services
Kevin attended the launch in London on 6 July. Chris Warburton has since produced a summary written specifically from a debt resolution and debt advice perspective, which is the most useful entry point if collections is your world.
The Mills Review: what it means for arrears, collections and recoveries
Local authorities and the cost of post: Dan Pearce of TelSolutions
TelSolutions hosted us at Innovation North in Leeds and Innovation South in London, where MEGA.AI spoke at both. In this interview Dan sets out how local authorities are modernising resident communications, collections and customer engagement against rising postal costs, declining postal effectiveness, changing expectations and fragmented legacy systems. The practical ground covered includes departmental pilots, verified RCS messaging, WhatsApp, robotic process automation and generative AI assistants, plus the coming changes to council tax collection and why earlier, more proactive engagement is the only way to absorb rising demand without rising headcount.
Upcoming events
IP Integration on CCaaS, orchestration and operational readiness
Toby Mason and Sam Grant join us to discuss their recent research and strategic thinking in the contact centre as a service space, and where AI genuinely fits. Orchestration, integration and innovation are firmly on the agenda. Their whitepaper asks what 400 UK retail and financial services leaders reveal about vulnerable customers, BNPL regulation and the growing importance of operational readiness. The timing matters: FCA-regulated firms are up against the deadline for Consumer Duty board reports, including evidence of progress and planned initiatives over the next twelve months. For most firms, that now means evidencing AI adoption. Download the whitepaper here: https://lnkd.in/eQC5hv2h
MEGA LinkedIn Live · 31 July 2026 with Toby Mason and Sam Grant of IP Integration
Toby and the IPI team have been challenging the traditional way of thinking about payments and technology for years - building intelligent payment solutions that help businesses create better, smarter and more connected customer experiences.
Click here to Register https://www.linkedin.com/events/7485347506722287617/
AI: Insight to Action
In person · 24 September 2026 · Stratford-upon-Avon
This is the one to put in the diary. A full in-person session in Stratford-upon-Avon, run with Acquired, Debtrak and DebtStream, and open to anyone working through AI adoption in collections and customer engagement. The name is the agenda. "AI: Real Life" in March mapped what the technology could do. Since then the questions have changed: firms are past curiosity and into procurement, integration, governance and proving outcomes to a board. September is about that gap, and about the practical detail that rarely makes it onto a conference stage.
Expect the conversation to cover:
➜ What firms have actually put into production this year, and what they would do differently
➜ Building the evidence base a Consumer Duty board report now needs on AI adoption
➜ Where deterministic and generative approaches each belong, and where the line sits in a regulated journey
➜ Making platforms, data partners and operations work as one stack rather than four projects
Our 19 June LinkedIn Live was the warm-up for this. If you want the short version of where the discussion starts in September, it is a good hour to spend first.
Frame the episode here: - the warm-up for AI: Insight to Action
Register for 24 September - places are limited, registration is open now
LinkedIn Live archive · mega.ai/linkedin-live
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