Picture this: An AI agent that can chat with your customers, collect payments, answer questions, and actually know when to loop in a human for backup.
PayNearMe just made that happen with their new AI Servicing and Collections Agent, and it’s already making support teams wonder why they didn’t have this sooner.
The payment tech company dropped this latest feature straight into their PayXM platform, where it plugs directly into all the payment data, business logic, and workflows already running behind the scenes. The result? An AI that doesn’t just respond to customers—it actually figures out what they need and takes action, whether someone calls in with a question or gets a proactive nudge about their account.
From Voice Menus to Actual Conversations
PayNearMe already shook things up back in October 2025 when they launched their Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA)—basically a smart alternative to those “press 1 for this, press 2 for that” phone systems we all love to hate. This new Collections Agent takes that foundation and cranks it up several notches by handling both incoming customer requests and outbound outreach campaigns.
Think of it as giving customers a direct line to solve their payment issues, whether they’re the ones making the call or responding to one.
What This Thing Actually Does
The outbound capabilities are where things get interesting. Here’s what businesses can pull off with this AI agent:
- Smart routing based on context: The agent taps into payment history and business rules to authenticate customers and figure out the right next move. It might share account details, process a payment, set up a payment schedule, log a promise to pay, handle opt-out requests, shoot over a Smart Link, or pass things to a live support person when needed.
- Run campaigns without burning out your team: Launch multiple high-volume outreach efforts at once while keeping your human staff available for the tricky stuff that actually needs a personal touch.
- Meet customers where they are: Voice, text, web, live chat—customers can pick their preferred channel and the agent keeps track of the conversation as they switch between options. (This feature is rolling out in stages, but it’s coming.)
“The real value of an AI agent comes from its ability to use payment context, business rules and workflows to move an interaction forward,” said John Minor, Chief Product Officer at PayNearMe. “Because the Agent is embedded directly in PayXM, it can move beyond answering questions to taking the appropriate action and involving support staff when human judgment or assistance is needed.”
Real Results From the Field
Indiana Finance Company got early access during a pilot program, using the AI agent for both proactive payment campaigns and incoming customer calls. The numbers are kind of wild.
During one outbound campaign, the agent made as many calls in a single hour as roughly 28 human staff members would normally handle in that same timeframe. And it wasn’t just blasting through calls mindlessly—90% of targeted accounts either got a voicemail or Smart Link, had an actual conversation with the agent, or were connected with a support team member.
That’s the kind of scale that changes how you think about customer outreach entirely.
“The AI Agent gives us the reach of a much larger team and lets us adjust the pace of campaigns based on our needs,” said Carl Stamper, COO at Indiana Finance Company. “It gives our customers a direct path to payment, while our staff can focus on situations where personal attention matters most.”
Building AI Into the Payment Experience, Not Slapping It On Top
Here’s what makes PayNearMe’s approach different: they’re baking AI directly into their payment platform rather than treating it like an add-on widget. The agent isn’t sitting outside the system looking in—it’s woven into the fabric of how payments and customer interactions actually work.
This fits into their bigger concept of Payment Experience Management (PEM), which is essentially about making the entire payment journey better for everyone involved. Customers get easier ways to handle their accounts. Support teams can focus on conversations that need human empathy or complex problem-solving. Operations staff spend less time on repetitive grunt work.
To double down on this vision, PayNearMe recently acquired the technology assets from Marr Labs and brought some of their team members on board. These folks have deep experience building and running sophisticated AI systems in complicated, heavily regulated industries—exactly the kind of expertise you need when you’re playing in the payments sandbox.
What’s Next
The AI Servicing and Collections Agent is live and available to PayNearMe clients right now. But it’s just the opening act. This is the first piece of a larger roadmap where PayNearMe plans to roll out additional specialized AI agents designed to tackle the headaches that make payment acceptance expensive and complicated.
If the pilot results are any indication, support teams might finally get to focus on the work that actually requires human intuition—while their AI colleague handles the rest without ever needing a lunch break.