Pilots prove agents can triage hardship requests or nudge early payers; scaling to 100k+ accounts demands architecture, ops and change mastery. Australian lenders succeeding here treat agents as infrastructure, not experiments.
Scaling Challenges and Fixes
Common pitfalls and counters:
Data silos: Fix with federated access (no central lake needed); agents query live CRMs/cores via secure APIs.
Volume spikes: Design stateless, event-driven agents that auto-scale on cloud infra; handle rate-rise arrears surges seamlessly.
Consistency creep: Lock policies into versioned rulesets; auto-flag drifts for review.
Team adoption: Start with agent-assist (whispers, summaries), evolve to full autonomy where safe; measure NPS alongside efficiency.
Tech Stack for Scale
Orchestration layer: Multi-agent frameworks routing tasks (e.g., hardship → assessment → comms).
Data backbone: Real-time streams from payments/telecomms; RAG over policy/docs for context.
Observability: Metrics on latency, accuracy, escalations; alerts for anomalies.
Resilience: Multi-model, failover logic; local data for sovereignty.
Phased Rollout Blueprint
Phase | Focus | KPIs | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
Pilot | 1 workflow (e.g., arrears triage) on 5% volume | 80% auto-handle, <5% errors | 3 months |
Expand | Add 2-3 cases (hardship, collections) to 20% | Cost save 30%, outcome parity | 6 months |
Scale | Full servicing suite, 80%+ volume | Arrears drop 15%, compliance score 95%+ | 12 months |
Optimise | Continuous tuning, new regs/models | ROI >3x, agent NPS >80 | Ongoing |
Returns at Scale
Mature deployments yield:
40-60% servicing cost drop.
20% arrears reduction via early action.
Compliance uplift: faster ASIC responses, lower provisions.
Scale smart: measure outcomes, iterate ruthlessly, keep humans central. Your portfolio – and P&L – will thank you.