An invoice goes unpaid past its due date. Someone on your team picks up the phone, and now they’re playing collector between actual job duties, absorbing the awkward calls and the pushback that comes with them. Hand the account to a collection agency instead, and a stranger starts calling your customer on your behalf, then keeps a slice of whatever comes back.
Neither choice is great, and there is a third option most SMBs have not priced out: an AI collections agent that places the calls itself. It runs outbound reminders and payment conversations under your business’s own name, without pulling anyone off their actual job and without an outside agency’s contingency fee cutting into what gets recovered.
How Common Are Overdue Invoices?
More than half of U.S. small businesses, 59%, are currently carrying overdue invoices, averaging $17.7K unpaid per business, according to Intuit QuickBooks’ 2026 Small Business Late Payments Report¹.
What Do Collection Agencies Actually Cost You?
Contingency fees at commercial collection agencies commonly range from 10% to 35%, though smaller or harder-to-collect claims can run as high as 50%². Automating the calls keeps that money inside the business instead of splitting it with a third party.
Is an AI Collections Agent Actually Legal to Use?
Yes. IPFone applies the same rules third-party debt collectors follow, regardless of whether you’re collecting your own invoices or someone else’s.
The CFPB’s Regulation F presumes a violation past seven calls per debt in seven days³, and the FCC ruled in 2024 that an AI-generated voice counts as an artificial or prerecorded voice under the TCPA, so the same consent rules that apply to auto-dialers apply here too⁴. The main shift from a human team: the system holds that limit on every account, every week, without exceptions.
How Does an AI Collections Agent Work Day to Day?
The agent calls, presents payment options, and can send a payment link by text the moment a debtor is ready to move. A human only joins the call once the debtor wants to pay or negotiate terms, so the team stops spending hours on calls that go nowhere, and the account never gets handed off to an outside collector working under its own script.
IPFone’s AI Collections Agent runs this workflow directly. FDCPA and TCPA compliance is built into the calling logic, the first 30 days are free, and there is no long-term contract. If overdue accounts are piling up, the fix isn’t more hours or a third party on the phone. Request a quote to set one up, first 30 days free, no contract.
Sources
- Intuit QuickBooks. “2026 Small Business Late Payments Report,” 2026. https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/small-business-late-payments-report-2026/
- The Kaplan Group. “Collection Agency Referral Database,” 2026. https://www.kaplancollectionagency.com/collection-agency-referral-database/
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Regulation F (12 CFR Part 1006). https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_debt-collection_final-rule_2020-10.pdf
- Federal Communications Commission, Declaratory Ruling on AI-Generated Voices Under the TCPA, 2024. https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-makes-ai-generated-voices-robocalls-illegal
Sol Narosky is a journalist and content marketing specialist with over seven years of experience covering technology, innovation, and emerging digital trends.
