What is a Credit Controller and Will They Be Replaced by AI?

Credit controllers play a vital role in keeping a business's cash flow healthy. They sit at the intersection of finance and customer relationships, ensuring that invoices are paid on time and disputes are resolved. But with the rapid rise of AI in finance, many are asking: what does the future hold for this role? Will AI replace credit controllers altogether, or simply change what the job looks like?

What Does a Credit Controller Do?

At its core, a credit controller's job is about managing receivables and reducing risk. They are the people tasked with making sure the company gets paid for the goods and services it provides. On a day-to-day basis, this can involve monitoring aged debtor reports, chasing overdue invoices, reviewing credit limits, and keeping close contact with customers.

Much of this work is conversational in nature. Credit controllers spend much of their day writing emails, making follow-up calls, and responding to customer queries. While the conversations vary in detail, many of the tasks are repetitive: sending payment reminders, resending invoices, confirming payment status, and recording updates in the finance system. These are necessary activities that take up the majority of a credit controller's time.

Although it is often viewed as administrative, the role requires a balance of firmness and diplomacy. Controllers must ensure payments are collected while maintaining good customer relationships, which makes their communication skills as important as their financial expertise.

How AI is Changing the Role

Because so much of credit control is conversational and repetitive, AI can have a profound impact on the role. Advances in large language models and conversational AI mean that agents can now send personalised reminders, reply to customer queries, and escalate issues in ways that feel natural and human.

For example, if a customer requests a copy of an invoice, an AI agent can retrieve it from the ERP system and send it back immediately. If a customer promises to pay next week, the AI can log the promise-to-pay date, pause further outreach, and then check again once the date has passed. Instead of firing off generic reminders, AI agents can adjust tone, timing, and escalation paths based on the context of each account.

The result is that credit controllers are no longer buried in repetitive follow-ups. AI handles the heavy lifting, while humans focus on the cases that require judgment, negotiation, or sensitive handling.

The Future: From Manual Work to Managing AI Agents

As AI matures, the role of the credit controller will evolve even further. In the near term, AI agents will draft emails and suggest actions, with humans in the loop to review and approve them. Over time, agents will act more autonomously, handling most of the conversational workload themselves and escalating only when something requires human oversight.

This means the credit controller of the future will spend less time sending reminders and more time managing outcomes. They will supervise AI systems, resolve disputes, and refine collection strategies. They will also play a role in training AI agents, teaching them how to handle edge cases and ensuring that communications remain aligned with company policy and customer expectations.

In this future, the job becomes less about repetitive execution and more about exception handling, escalation management, and strategic oversight.

Will Credit Controllers Be Replaced?

The short answer is no. Credit controllers will not disappear, but their role will change dramatically. AI will automate much of the repetitive, conversational workload, freeing controllers to focus on higher-value activities. Instead of chasing payments all day, they will spend more time resolving disputes, managing customer relationships, and making strategic decisions about credit risk.

Far from making credit controllers redundant, AI will empower them to be more effective, allowing each person to manage a larger portfolio of accounts while driving better results for the business.

Conclusion

The role of the credit controller is evolving. Today, much of the job involves repetitive email and phone conversations with customers. Tomorrow, AI agents will handle these at scale, allowing humans to focus on the judgment calls, the disputes, and the exceptions that truly require their expertise.

Credit controllers will not be replaced. They will be elevated, moving up the value chain to manage AI-driven teams of agents and focus on more strategic, value-adding work.