India’s booming fintech and IT sectors often steal the spotlight, but a transformation is quietly unfolding in the background. The debt collection industry, often perceived as conventional and overlooked, is evolving unexpectedly, drawing talent from tech giants like Amazon and Google. This evolution raises an important question: What factors have transformed this traditional sector into an intriguing space for innovation?
The Status Quo
For centuries, the art of collections—be it taxes or debts—has been handled in-person by humans. Imagine a time when collectors roamed towns and villages, knocking on doors, collecting payments, and carrying messages back to the authorities. It was a system built on persistence, yet riddled with inefficiencies. A lone messenger could only reach so many people in a day. Payments were restricted to a single method, resources were scarce, and hours were lost travelling back and forth for every reminder.
Flipping through the pages of history, it’s easy to see how flawed this process was—slow, rigid, and bound by physical limitations. While other verticals of the finance landscape, like lending, payments and insurance, have shifted almost completely to digital channels, collections have started seeing this change only recently. In this era, it’s not just commerce that is quick and easy. Speed and convenience are closely associated with good user experience and have also become the primary metrics to measure the efficacy of collections.
Tech-Driven Platforms Disrupting the Space
A new wave of startups, emerging from India’s thriving tech ecosystem, is quietly flipping the script on debt collections, proving that the industry doesn’t have to choose between speed and efficacy. While collections once relied solely on calls and field operations, companies like Spocto X—a homegrown Indian innovator—now handle most operations through their AI-powered, end-to-end platform. Having already demonstrated success in the Middle East and Northern Africa region, where digital-first strategies resonate deeply with tech-savvy populations, these Indian-origin solutions are now poised to transform global markets.
Armed with this new agentic AI infrastructure, hyper-personalised engagement strategies through both voice and video channels, and digital-first tools—ranging from conversational bots, seamless plug-and-play integrations, and comprehensive compliance—these companies are making smarter and more humane collections. Moreover, the industry has only been able to create this AI-driven ecosystem because it is now backed by talent that stems from technical backgrounds.
Spocto X and the ‘Big Tech’ Brain Drain
At Spocto X, it is Vivek Srikantan, chief technology officer, who has worked tirelessly to create a holistic digital infrastructure for collections. An alumnus of Amazon, Google and HP, Srikantan is propelled by a team of tech talent that stems from top Indian and global institutions like the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IITs and Ivy League schools. Together, they have been able to create a platform that provides a bunch of advanced features for lenders and agents while trying to address operational problems through AI and ML models.
It is truly remarkable to see such techies flock to a sector that has traditionally been an underdog for attracting IT talent. This shift can be attributed to their thirst for innovation and problem-solving for the masses, and the realisation that only technology can address these challenges at scale.
“I’m thrilled to lead technology for Spocto X, where innovation is at the core of everything we do. We are shaping the future of collections with our next-gen platform that drives efficiencies beyond traditional limits. With a large deployment of state-of-the-art agentic AI, we make collections a breeze for our partners and customers. What sets us apart is our deep investment in building the tech backbone for the industry, from intelligent automation to facilitating real-time decision making, and our ability to create solutions that integrate effortlessly into a lender’s existing ecosystem. We’re not just building tools; we’re trying to solve problems for the entire sector,” he said.
Himanshu Kateja, head of product at Spocto X, comes from an alma mater of IIT Kanpur and Columbia University and works on the finer details of the platform. Kateja has led the building of the unified platform CRM, creating an omnichannel digital collections framework with intelligent segmentation and allocation of borrower accounts and AI-driven campaign orchestration and engagement for risk profiles.
“Some of the smart features we’ve built are already making collections easier and more efficient every day,” he explained. “For example, our conversational intelligence tools and AI-driven predictive dialling help calling agents address borrower concerns more effectively and at scale. In the field, our mobile app provides much-needed visibility into agent activity, helping us respond quickly and make more informed decisions. On the personalisation front, we’ve developed tools that enable natural, human-like conversations while maintaining full compliance—something even experienced agents can find challenging. We’re also using multilingual video communication to engage borrowers in ways that feel personal and culturally relevant, helping us build trust and improve outcomes across the board.”
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite the growing momentum, meaningful transformation still faces headwinds. Traditional players remain reluctant to let go of legacy processes because many of these organisations have built their operations around systems and practices that, while outdated, are deeply ingrained and familiar. Shifting to modern, AI-driven approaches requires not just investment in new tools, but also a cultural shift—rethinking workflows, retraining teams, and trusting automation over manual judgment.
But the bigger picture is hard to ignore. Tech-driven collections have the power to do more than streamline operations—they can strengthen India’s financial ecosystem and empower borrowers through transparency and choice. This isn’t just about solving for defaults; it’s about building a more inclusive and resilient financial future. With companies like Spocto X and leaders like Srikantan at the helm, debt collection is no longer an afterthought—it’s emerging as one of the most exciting frontiers of tech-led social impact.
And the next time you ignore a call from a debt collector? Just know—it might be an AI trained by a Yubinaut.
