Accounts receivable with an AI coworker: from reminder to relationship

Collections is more than sending reminders

In most mid-market companies, accounts receivable is run by two to four people maintaining a shared inbox and an Excel extract from the ERP. They aren't just sending payment reminders; they're managing relationships, calling account managers, and deciding which customer to push harder and which to approach gently. That last piece is relationship work, and it has to stay relationship work.

The rest of it, extracting open invoices, segmenting by age and amount, sending the first three reminders, tracking responses, is process work. And process work transfers remarkably well to an AI coworker.

What an AI coworker does on collections

The AI coworker reads open items out of your ERP every morning (SAP, AFAS, Exact, Dynamics 365 or Odoo), segments them by aging bucket, customer segment and payment history, and decides per customer what the next action is. It sends the reminders that fit that customer, in the right tone, at the right cadence, and tracks whether there's a response.

Actions the AI coworker handles autonomously:

• Reminder 1, 2 and 3 with escalating tone, at moments that fit the customer, not a rigid calendar.
• Dunning letters when non-payment persists, using the same branding and legal wording your team already uses.
• Automatic follow-up on payment promises and partial payments.
• Preparation of call lists: who, why, with what context, for which account manager.
• Escalation to the collections track once internal thresholds are hit.

Segmentation on payment behavior

Not every customer reacts the same way to the same reminder. A long-standing customer who always pays around day 35 deserves a different approach from a new customer with three invoices outstanding. The AI coworker learns that pattern from your own receivables history and adjusts its approach. That raises the share that pays on reminder 1, and lowers the share that only responds at dunning stage.

Integration with ERP and email

The AI coworker reads open items straight from the ERP and sends messages through your existing email channel (Exchange, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or your own SMTP). Replies land in the same mailbox your team already watches, so nothing disappears. Payments get matched via bank statements and linked to the right invoices as soon as they come in.

What you end up with

Typical results after three months in production: DSO down five to twelve days, the share of invoices paid on time up by ten to twenty percentage points, and a collections team that gets its time back for the conversations that actually make a difference. Plan a Quick Scan if you'd like to know what's in your ERP and AR ledger to gain.