AI bots are collecting debts — or at least trying to

AI bots are collecting debts — or at least trying to

From Marketplace Tech by Marketplace

June 3, 2026 · 8 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the rise of AI bots in debt collection and their effectiveness.

If you have a debt, you may get a call, a letter or a text prodding you to pay it back. Now, that call could come from an AI agent. The AI debt collection market is expected to reach $16 billion by 2034, according to the Kaplan Group. Kate Nibbs of Wired has been reporting on this and said these bots are not as effective at getting people to pay back the money they owe.

People in this episode

Guest: Kate Nibbs

Topics covered

  • AI
  • debt collection
  • technology
  • automation
  • financial services

Keywords

  • AI debt collection
  • debt
  • automation
  • financial technology
  • Kaplan Group

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wired, Kaplan Group

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