For the second year in a row, debt collection tech company Credit Clear has won “Best use of AI” at the 7th Annual Australian Fintech Awards.

This year’s submission was based on the company’s AI-driven software, which delivered a 35% uplift in collections for one of the largest Australian toll road operators in May and June 2022.

Chief product and technology officer (CPTO) Jason Serafino says the case study measured one cohorts using digitally optimised workflows including SMS, email, and dialler calls, using the Credit Clear (ASX:CCR) platform – and the other cohort used AI to calculating which action to take next for a particular customer based on what had already happened to date and the probability of success.

“We’ve trained the AI on tens of millions of interactions, to understand the best treatment for a customer on a day-by-day basis, looking at the kind of customer that it is, the kind of debt that it is,” he said.

“It might decide that today the first action might be to send an SMS while for another customer it might say the first action is to make a phone call or send an email, because it’s a different profile of customer.

“Then as that customer progresses through the process, the customer’s behaviour is also then taken into account.”

Direct uplift in collecting money

As a result of the case study, the client saw a 35% uplift in collections – and decided to use Credit Clear’s AI as their primary method of collection for the first 6 weeks of their collection lifecycle going forward.

“I think we’re winning because we’ve got demonstrated results from AI, and for us demonstrated results means better collections, and actual ‘money in the bank’ results,” Serafino said.

“In a space like AI we’re often looking for 1-2% differences and we get excited about that, so to hit an uplift of 35%, with more money in the bank because of the use of the AI, that’s really exciting.

“And this AI can be applied to everybody – because who doesn’t want a better result?

“We can deploy it in every single client, and it’s very quickly enabled on the platform, so we see very broad application for it.”

Insuretech award finalist to boot

Credit Clear was also named as an “Insurtech Start-up of the Year” finalist at the 2022 Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) industry awards for its automation of third-party motor claims.

“Third party at fault motor vehicle claims means that our client ensures customer has been hit by third party, so their insurer pays for their repairs, and then they have to chase the third party to get them to accept liability and lodge their claim or if they’re uninsured, then actually make a payment,” Serafino said.

“And you can imagine that is a very difficult process, you’re chasing somebody whose details were collected at the scene of an accident and if they’re not insured, they have to get them to accept liability, get the repairs done, send them proof of loss documentation about the cost of repairs and once they’ve got that, then they can start to make a payment.

“So, we automated that entire end to end process with a complete digital solution.”

Customer engagement higher than ever

But more than improving the speed of the process (with the company’s record at 13 days) Serafino says they’re seeing 79% engagement by the third parties on the messages that are sent to them.

“Plus, 88% of the third parties who engage actually complete the digital process, which is very, very high,” he said.

“We will also track Net Promoter Score (NPS) along with collections and we continue to see these really strong NPS scores, so it’s really about a better experience for that third party.

“And we are seeing a bit of rapid growth in our insurance clients as a result of this, it’s been a bit of a game changer so we’ve attracted a huge amount of attention – and we’ve got a number of insurers coming on board now.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Credit Clear, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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