# Bill and Account Collectors

> Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visit to solicit payment. Duties include receiving payment and posting amount to customer's account, preparing statements to credit department if customer fails to respond, initiating repossession proceedings or service disconnection, and keeping records of collection and status of accounts.

- **SOC code:** 43-3011.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-43-3011-00
- **Also known as:** Collector, Debt Collector, Patient Access Specialist, Patient Account Representative, Account Representative, Accounts Receivable Specialist (AR Specialist), Collection Agent, Collection Specialist
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Record information about financial status of customers and status of collection efforts.
- Locate and monitor overdue accounts, using computers and a variety of automated systems.
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
- Answer customer questions regarding problems with their accounts.
- Persuade customers to pay amounts due on credit accounts, damage claims, or nonpayable checks, or to return merchandise.
- Confer with customers by telephone or in person to determine reasons for overdue payments and to review the terms of sales, service, or credit contracts.
- Receive payments and post amounts paid to customer accounts.
- Trace delinquent customers to new addresses by inquiring at post offices, telephone companies, credit bureaus, or through the questioning of neighbors.
- Notify credit departments, order merchandise repossession or service disconnection, and turn over account records to attorneys when customers fail to respond to collection attempts.
- Sort and file correspondence and perform miscellaneous clerical duties, such as answering correspondence and writing reports.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_
- Speech Clarity _(ability)_
- Written Expression _(ability)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Persuasion _(transferable_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology, in demand)_
- SAP software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- MEDITECH software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- ADP Drive DMS for Accounting
- ADS Advantage
- Adtec Agency Manager
- Austin Logistics CallSelect

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 91st percentile (High) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 85th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 95th percentile (High) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 76th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 89th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -10.5% growth (Declining); 13.7k annual openings; 166.9k → 149.4k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $46,040; 165,020 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 25% automation, 57% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 3.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** task iteration.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment. _(1.0% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment. _(0.5% of measured AI use; directive)_
- Arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations. _(0.3% of measured AI use; task iteration)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me advise customers of necessary actions and strategies for debt repayment.
- Help me locate and notify customers of delinquent accounts by mail, telephone, or personal visits to solicit payment.
- Help me arrange for debt repayment or establish repayment schedules, based on customers' financial situations.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-43-3011-00_