#Automate document generation

[digital-document-generation]

Building Trust: How Automated Document Generation Increases Transparency in Operations

In today’s digital world, trust is currency. Businesses cannot afford to lose it. It does not matter if you are a fintech powerhouse or a SaaS company, your customers want more than speed; they want transparency, integrity, and awareness.

That’s where automate document generation steps in as a silent hero. It’s not just a receipt generator; it is a credibility builder that provides transparency, consistency, and credibility.

Automation That Speaks for Itself

Automated document generation is better than a standard copy and paste bot. It pulls data directly from integrated systems (think CRMs, ERPs, or communication platforms like Sinch), and produces clean, brand-consistent documentsthat are error-free, in real time.

When customers and partners receive documents that are onetime, accurate, and personalized, they know that your operations are tight, and you are not simply winging it behind the scenes.

Built-In Transparency, Zero Guesswork

One of the biggest trust drivers is transparency, and automate PDF document creation                  offers it in droves. They come with full audit trails, time-stamp entries, and consistent language, with no room for gray area. Everything is tractable. Everything is clear. That's the visibility that your compliance team dreams about and your customers appreciate without even knowing it.

It's also a win for internal teams.Since document generation is folded into workflows, everyone, from support agents to sales teams, has 24/7 instant access to current and compliant information.

More Speed, Less Stress and Fewer Errors

Let's face it, creating documents by hand is a bottleneck. It slows down timelines, invitesmistakes, and has your ops team feeling stressed. By adding the best document generation software to the process, you eliminate human error and guarantee that the correct documents are getting to the correct person at the right time.

That way, there are fewer headaches for customer service teams, and businesses can scale without messing with trust. Automated documents are also sustainable and help to eliminate unnecessary printing, paper trails, and courier delays as well.

Trust Is in the Details

Customers prefer brands that are predictably the best, quick, honest, and detailed. The best document management software doesn't just smooth out operations. It gives good visibility into how your company operates and invites your customers to look.

And when they do? They see a brand that has nothing to hide.

In Conclusion

In an era of on-demand, real-time expectations, automated document generation is one of the trust builders working for you in the background. It boosts communications, reinforces compliance, and places transparency front and center, all while keeping the pace of the transaction moving along.

The result? Smarter operations, stronger relationships, and a reputation for reliability that sticks.

[littlebellesmama]

Why Germany Is Still Struggling with Digitalization – A Real-Life Look from Finance

Working in Germany, especially in a field like Finance, often feels like stepping into a strange paradox. On one hand, you’re in one of the most advanced economies in the world—known for its precision, engineering, and efficiency. On the other hand, daily tasks can feel like they belong in the 1990s. If you’ve ever had to send invoices to customers who insist they be mailed physically—yes, by…

[pdqdocs]

Creating documents the traditional way can be slow and tedious, often involving repetitive tasks and manual data entry. PDQ Docs simplifies this process by automating document generation, enabling users to create customized documents with just a click. Whether you need contracts, invoices, reports, or any other type of document, PDQ Docs offers an efficient solution that saves time and minimizes the risk of errors. For more visit: https://pdqdocs.com/

[pcongrp]

Streamlining Mortgage Processing using Intelligent Document Processing

According to a Freddie Mac report, the US home purchase mortgage originations are expected to grow to 2.2 million dollars in 2023. With the market devoted to mortgage loans multiplying so fast, loan applications will surge.

As a result, the traditional way of loan processing will be ineffective in handling large volumes of loan applications. With so much documentation, the task will become painstakingly tricky for lenders to check and validate data without committing any error.

The overall delay on the part of lenders will further delay the approval process. Therefore, to eliminate all this hassle, automating the loan processing with IDP is essential.

IDP, or Intelligent Document Processing, speeds up credit rating determinations by controlling the flow of information throughout the process. It further lowers the documentation errors prevalent in traditional loan processing methods.

Challenges of Traditional Mortgage Processing

For most lenders manually going through loan applications, the entire process is like a hurdle race. While they cross one hurdle, they come face to face with another.

Below are the three most difficult hurdles that lenders face while processing loan applications manually:

Reducing Turnaround Time

Even though the entire loan processing process is complicated, the end user always demands speedy results. Thus, lenders must be quick in ensuring that loan applications are within the compliance framework. But completing the entire process manually is far more challenging than anybody can imagine.

Finding Competent Resources

At the onboarding stage of the mortgage, the lenders must assess the borrower's finances before moving further. This process is called the pre-underwriting stage in loan processing.

To conduct it smoothly, lenders must find experienced professionals who can effectively execute the process. Otherwise, the loan file may be rejected if the forms are not properly completed or the titles and papers are not adequately examined.

Minimizing Human Error

Assuming that the consumer completes an application and satisfies all requirements in the pre-underwriting process, the next challenge is to overcome data management issues.

From entering information into the banking system to uploading information from the supporting documents, each stage gives rise to the possibility of committing errors when entering data manually.

With each cumbersome step in the loan process, the approval lingers. It is why AI-based document processing technologies like IDP have come to rise.

They can dramatically shorten the entire cycle time for loan processing by categorizing, extracting, and validating data from loan papers. Consequently, lenders may swiftly and accurately accept or refuse loan applications without wasting time.

All-in-all, it can lead to a considerable increase in throughput and loans handled, resulting in significant financial benefits for lenders.

The Rise Of Intelligent Document Processing

With a projected 175 trillion gigabytes of data to be maintained globally by 2025, businesses will need a simplified approach to manage physical and digital data records. It is where IDP becomes crucial in today's time.

IDP is a game-changer for the finance business, especially the mortgage sector, with its end-to-end document processing, validation, and extraction advantages.

By implementing IDP in your loan processing, you can accelerate document processing, improve data accuracy, and reduce the overall timeline of loan processing and approval.

Moreover, you can quickly capture application forms and extract the data required for mortgage pre-processing tasks.

Overall, streamlining loan processing through IDP can offer big-time cost advantages to lenders in a world where mortgage compliance regulations are growing tighter.

To sum it up for you, mortgage lenders will benefit in the following ways from IDP:

· Faster time to process the applications.

· Better use of staff time.

· No errors and zero manual intervention.

· Manage unstructured data.

· Reduced time and cost in operations.

So, it is time to uncover how IDP can transform your lending business if you want to gain a superior edge over your competitor.

And what better than Piazza Consulting Group to take you to the next level?

How Can Piazza Consulting Group's IDP Solution Transform the Mortgage Cycle?

Piazza Consulting Group’s (PCG) considerable expertise in Intelligent Document Processing has helped innumerable customers with their digital transformation journey.

Let us understand how we have helped clients with one real-life example. For a private lender in New Jersey, PCG advised and installed Kofax Total Agility (KTA) for Intelligent Document Processing.

Advantages of KTA:

KTA is designed to be used by citizen developers. It has a user-friendly UI with self-explanatory built-in functionalities. It reduces the need to hire professionals or third-party implementation experts.

KTA’s Scan and Virtual Rescan profile reduces the document prep time by evaluating each page and automatically applying the correct image quality settings. Moreover, you can scan color and black-and-white photos without sorting.

We can attain 95% classification assurance, implying that 95 out of 100 pages can be identified correctly.

Separating all the necessary tax and supporting documents based on Business name and Financial year can be time-consuming. But we can accomplish it in minutes with IDPs Trainable Document Separation and Instruction Classification.

The extraction confidence can be set at 90%. The value extraction from separated forms can be automated using trainable extraction groups that use Advanced Zone Validators and content-based script locators. Usually, extracting from the separated forms and storing them can take some hours, but with this, it can be reduced to minutes.

KTA offers industry-leading Business Process Management capacities wherein user-profiles and Groups can be made with explicit access authorizations to ensure security and compliance.

As a result, PCG optimized the mortgage processing by utilizing Robotic Process Automation and Intelligent Document Processing for mortgage processing services.

Wrapping It Up

To achieve better collaboration between lenders, borrowers, and all the parties involved in the loan processing, automating the entire loan process through IDP is necessary.

So, switch from manual loan processing processes to IDP with Piazza Consulting Group. With our cutting-edge technology, you get the solutions for your organization's software and development demands in one place.

[alwajeeztech]

Documents Management in ALZERP Cloud ERP Software

In today’s fast-paced business environment, managing and organizing documents effectively is crucial for operational efficiency. ALZERP Cloud ERP Software offers a robust Documents Library or File Storage feature, designed to streamline document management and ensure your business remains agile, compliant, and efficient. This article delves into the comprehensive capabilities of the Documents…

[intelliatech]

Top 10 ChatGPT Prompts For Software Developers

ChatGPT can do a lot more than just code creation and this blog post is going to be all about that. We have curated a list of ChatGPT prompts that will help software developers with their everyday tasks. ChatGPT can respond to questions and can compose codes making it a very helpful tool for software engineers.

While this AI tool can help developers with the entire SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle), it is important to understand how to use the prompts effectively for different needs.

Prompt engineering gives users accurate results. Since ChatGPT accepts prompts, we receive more precise answers. But a lot depends on how these prompts are formulated. 

To Get The Best Out Of ChatGPT, Your Prompts Should Be:

Clear and well-defined. The more detailed your prompts, the better suggestions you will receive from ChatGPT.

Specify the functionality and programming language. Not specifying what you exactly need might not give you the desired results.

Phrase your prompts in a natural language, as if asking someone for help. This will make ChatGPT understand your problem better and give more relevant outputs.

Avoid unnecessary information and ambiguity. Keep it not only to the point but also inclusive of all important details.

Top ChatGPT Prompts For Software Developers

Let’s quickly have a look at some of the best ChatGPT prompts to assist you with various stages of your Software development lifecycle.

1. For Practicing SQL Commands;

2. For Becoming A Programming Language Interpreter;

3. For Creating Regular Expressions Since They Help In Managing, Locating, And Matching Text.

4. For Generating Architectural Diagrams For Your Software Requirements.

Prompt Examples: I want you to act as a Graphviz DOT generator, an expert to create meaningful diagrams. The diagram should have at least n nodes (I specify n in my input by writing [n], 10 being the default value) and to be an accurate and complex representation of the given input. Each node is indexed by a number to reduce the size of the output, should not include any styling, and with layout=neato, overlap=false, node [shape=rectangle] as parameters. The code should be valid, bugless and returned on a single line, without any explanation. Provide a clear and organized diagram, the relationships between the nodes have to make sense for an expert of that input. My first diagram is: “The water cycle [8]”.  

5. For Solving Git Problems And Getting Guidance On Overcoming Them.

Prompt Examples: “Explain how to resolve this Git merge conflict: [conflict details].” 6. For Code generation- ChatGPT can help generate a code based on descriptions given by you. It can write pieces of codes based on the requirements given in the input. Prompt Examples: -Write a program/function to {explain functionality} in {programming language} -Create a code snippet for checking if a file exists in Python. -Create a function that merges two lists into a dictionary in JavaScript.  

7. For Code Review And Debugging: ChatGPT Can Review Your Code Snippet And Also Share Bugs.

Prompt Examples: -Here’s a C# code snippet. The function is supposed to return the maximum value from the given list, but it’s not returning the expected output. Can you identify the problem? [Enter your code here] -Can you help me debug this error message from my C# program: [error message] -Help me debug this Python script that processes a list of objects and suggests possible fixes. [Enter your code here]

8. For Knowing The Coding Best Practices And Principles: It Is Very Important To Be Updated With Industry’s Best Practices In Coding. This Helps To Maintain The Codebase When The Organization Grows.

Prompt Examples: -What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing code? -What are the best practices for security testing? -Show me best practices for writing {concept or function} in {programming language}.  

9. For Code Optimization: ChatGPT Can Help Optimize The Code And Enhance Its Readability And Performance To Make It Look More Efficient.

Prompt Examples: -Optimize the following {programming language} code which {explain the functioning}: {code snippet} -Suggest improvements to optimize this C# function: [code snippet] -What are some strategies for reducing memory usage and optimizing data structures? 

10. For Creating Boilerplate Code: ChatGPT Can Help In Boilerplate Code Generation.

Prompt Examples: -Create a basic Java Spring Boot application boilerplate code. -Create a basic Python class boilerplate code

11. For Bug Fixes: Using ChatGPT Helps Fixing The Bugs Thus Saving A Large Chunk Of Time In Software Development And Also Increasing Productivity.

Prompt Examples: -How do I fix the following {programming language} code which {explain the functioning}? {code snippet} -Can you generate a bug report? -Find bugs in the following JavaScript code: (enter code)  

12. Code Refactoring- ChatGPt Can Refactor The Code And Reduce Errors To Enhance Code Efficiency, Thus Making It Easier To Modify In The Future.

Prompt Examples –What are some techniques for refactoring code to improve code reuse and promote the use of design patterns? -I have duplicate code in my project. How can I refactor it to eliminate redundancy?  

13. For Choosing Deployment Strategies- ChatGPT Can Suggest Deployment Strategies Best Suited For A Particular Project And To Ensure That It Runs Smoothly.

Prompt Examples -What are the best deployment strategies for this software project? {explain the project} -What are the best practices for version control and release management?  

14. For Creating Unit Tests- ChatGPT Can Write Test Cases For You

Prompt Examples: -How does test-driven development help improve code quality? -What are some best practices for implementing test-driven development in a project? These were some prompt examples for you that we sourced on the basis of different requirements a developer can have. So whether you have to generate a code or understand a concept, ChatGPT can really make a developer’s life by doing a lot of tasks. However, it certainly comes with its own set of challenges and cannot always be completely correct. So it is advisable to cross-check the responses. Hope this helps. Visit us- Intelliatech

[piazzaconsultinggroup]

Transforming Business Dynamics: Exploring PCG's Generative AI Services

In the bustling realm of digital transformation, businesses are continually seeking innovative solutions to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and elevate customer experiences. Amidst this technological revolution, one cornerstone stands tall: Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). At the forefront of this evolution is PCG, an IT consulting powerhouse dedicated to guiding businesses through their digital evolution journey.

Unveiling PCG's Generative AI Services

1. Intelligent Automation:

Imagine a world where repetitive tasks are a relic of the past. With PCG's Intelligent Automation solutions, businesses can unlock unparalleled efficiency by automating mundane processes. From data entry to inventory management, intelligent automation streamlines operations, liberating valuable resources for strategic endeavours.

2. Conversational AI Chatbots:

In today's hyper-connected world, customer engagement is paramount. PCG's Conversational AI Chatbots serve as virtual assistants, seamlessly interacting with customers round-the-clock. From answering queries to processing orders, these chatbots provide personalized experiences, fostering brand loyalty and customer satisfaction.

3. Intelligent OCR:

Say goodbye to manual data extraction woes with PCG's Intelligent OCR (Optical Character Recognition). By leveraging advanced algorithms, PCG's OCR technology effortlessly converts scanned documents into editable, searchable text. From invoices to contracts, businesses can extract valuable insights with unparalleled accuracy and speed.

4. Document AI:

Navigating the sea of documents can be daunting, but with PCG's Document AI solutions, businesses gain clarity amidst chaos. Harnessing the power of machine learning, Document AI categorises, extracts, and analyses documents with surgical precision. From compliance audits to contract management, businesses can make informed decisions with confidence.

5. Automation:

PCG's Automation solutions transcend boundaries, revolutionising how businesses operate. Whether it's orchestrating workflows or optimising supply chains, automation empowers businesses to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape. With PCG as a strategic partner, businesses can embrace automation with confidence, driving sustainable growth and innovation.

6. Data Analytics and Reporting:

Data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises, but harnessing its potential can be daunting. PCG's Data Analytics and Reporting services unlock actionable insights from raw data, enabling data-driven decision-making. From predictive analytics to real-time reporting, businesses gain a competitive edge in today's data-driven landscape.

About PCG: Empowering Digital Evolution

At the heart of PCG's ethos lies a commitment to empowering businesses on their digital evolution journey. As an IT consulting company, PCG serves as a trusted partner, guiding businesses through the complexities of digital transformation. With a team of seasoned experts and a relentless pursuit of innovation, PCG delivers tailored solutions that drive tangible results.

Embracing the Future with PCG

In a world where change is the only constant, businesses must embrace innovation to thrive. With PCG's Generative AI services, businesses can unlock new possibilities, drive efficiency, and elevate customer experiences. From intelligent automation to data analytics, PCG empowers businesses to navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Join hands with PCG and embark on a journey towards a brighter, more prosperous future.

[digital-document-generation]

Scaling Your Startup with Document Generation: Strategies for Growth

Traditional, manual document creation process is not only slow, but also prone to error and inconsistency. Hence, emerging start-ups are switching to Document Generation software and tools that allow for easy creation of digital documents. Such tools help start-ups to automate the creation of a variety of business documents, like invoices, sales proposals, agreements and more.

[healthfitness235]

Did you know this one thing can predict your wealth and transform your body?

Anyone who has dreamt of a better life understands the frustration and disappointment when things don’t go according to plan. Some people see this problem as a failure to follow through with the demands of their routine, but that’s not the case. What if the reason that these people seem to fail has nothing to do with how forcefully they push to achieve? What if the actual solution is as simple as a 20-word script?

That’s what The Genie Script is all about. According to their website, the key to getting enough energy, having the right intelligence, and establishing mental clarity is simple and singular. The late Bob Proctor originally described the one thing holding consumers back and it is inside every person. This hidden gem is the key to wealth and can even help consumers establish themselves as overnight millionaire in some cases. read more.. https://geniescript.org/

[jcmarchi]

Get empowered, not overpowered by GenAI

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/get-empowered-not-overpowered-by-genai/

Get empowered, not overpowered by GenAI

Dr. Tina Manoharan, VP and Global Lead of Data/AI & Digital Innovation at Philips, gave this presentation at the Generative AI Summit Boston in 2023.

I’m super passionate about using data science and AI insights to make a difference in people’s lives every single day.

Generative AI can create content that resembles human content, and this is what we’ve also been looking at in healthcare. Can generative AI be used by patients and caregivers to interact with our solutions in ways they haven’t been able to do before? 

Generative AI opportunities in healthcare

Healthcare is one of the top areas where we expect a huge investment in generative AI. That’s because there’s a huge disease burden. Whether it’s cardiology, oncology, or neurology-related, there are so many possibilities where we can all make a big difference.

If you look at the areas where generative AI is starting to come into play for healthcare, there’s a lot of focus on documentation and summarization use cases and other areas like workflow automation. But what we’re also looking at is whether we can build companions for patients and physicians as clinician-facing and patient-facing solutions. 

The deeper you go into clinical areas, the stricter the regulations are, so it takes time to build robust solutions.

As Dr. Robert Pearl said, ‘ChatGPT will become more important than a stethoscope in the future,’ and physicians who want to undertake high-quality practice will use ChatGPT or other similar generative AI tools now and in the near future.

But does it mean that this might become the scenario when we’re visiting GPs or physicians in the future? I hope not. I hope we’re not sitting there waiting for them to see what ChatGPT has generated for them. 

At the same time, I hope that we can trust the solutions aren’t going to scare patients away. 

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[pdqdocs]

Simplified Document Creation with PDQ Docs: Streamlining Your Workflow

In today’s fast-paced world, efficiency and time-saving tools are essential in every aspect of business and personal work. When it comes to document creation, many professionals face the challenge of managing complex formatting, collaboration, and time-consuming revisions. With PDQ Docs, document creation has been made easier, faster, and more streamlined than ever before. This innovative software is designed to simplify the process of creating professional documents, enabling users to focus on the content rather than the format.

How PDQ Docs Simplifies the Document Creation Process

PDQ Docs revolutionizes the way documents are created by providing a user-friendly interface and an array of powerful tools that reduce the complexity traditionally associated with document formatting. Whether you are drafting a simple letter, preparing a business report, or putting together a legal document, PDQ Docs makes the task significantly less daunting. The software eliminates the need for extensive knowledge of formatting techniques and complex features found in traditional word processors.

One of the key benefits of simplified document creation with PDQ Docs is its intuitive interface. The software is designed to be accessible for both beginners and advanced users, making it easy to create polished documents without the steep learning curve associated with other tools. Whether you are creating a document from scratch or modifying an existing template, PDQ Docs ensures that the process is as smooth and straightforward as possible.

Efficiency in Document Formatting

One of the most time-consuming aspects of simplified document creation is formatting. Whether it's aligning text, adjusting margins, or selecting the appropriate font size, these details can quickly become overwhelming. PDQ Docs simplifies this process by providing pre-set templates and automatic formatting options that save time and effort. You no longer need to manually adjust settings every time you create a new document. The software handles most formatting tasks for you, allowing you to focus more on the content itself.

Security and Reliability

When creating and sharing documents, especially in professional settings, security is a top priority. PDQ Docs offers robust security features to ensure that your documents are protected. The software encrypts your documents and stores them in a secure cloud environment, making it easy to access and edit them from anywhere while keeping them safe from unauthorized access. The cloud-based system also ensures that your documents are backed up, so you never have to worry about losing important work due to a computer malfunction or data loss.

Conclusion

Simplified document creation is no longer a distant goal, thanks to PDQ Docs. With its user-friendly interface, collaborative features, efficient formatting tools, and top-notch security, this document creation software is designed to save you time, reduce stress, and help you produce professional documents quickly. Whether you’re a small business owner, a student, or a professional in any industry, PDQ Docs is the ideal solution for simplifying the document creation process and improving your workflow. Try PDQ Docs today and experience the future of document creation.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States

The vast majority of America's debt collection targets $500-2,000 credit card debts. It is a filthy business, operated by lawless firms who hire unskilled workers drawn from the same economic background as their targets, who routinely and grotesquely flout the law, but only when it comes to the people with the least ability to pay.

America has fairly robust laws to protect debtors from sleazy debt-collection practices, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which has been on the books since 1978. The FDCPA puts strict limits on the conduct of debt collectors, and offers real remedies to debtors when they are abused.

But for FDPCA provisions to be honored, they must be understood. The people who collect these debts are almost entirely untrained. The people they collected the debts from are likewise in the dark. The only specialized expertise debt-collection firms concern themselves with are a series of gotcha tricks and semi-automated legal shenanigans that let them take money they don't deserve from people who can't afford to pay it.

There's no better person to explain this dynamic than Patrick McKenzie, a finance and technology expert whose Bits About Money newsletter is absolutely essential reading. No one breaks down the internal operations of the finance sector like McKenzie. His latest edition, "Credit card debt collection," is a fantastic read:

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-waste-stream-of-consumer-finance/

McKenzie describes how a debt collector who mistook him for a different PJ McKenzie and tried to shake him down for a couple hundred bucks, and how this launched him into a life as a volunteer advocate for debtors who were less equipped to defend themselves from collectors than he was.

McKenzie's conclusion is that "paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States." If you stand on your rights (which requires that you know your rights), then you will quickly discover that debt collectors don't have – and can't get – the documentation needed to collect on whatever debts they think you owe (even if you really owe them).

The credit card companies are fully aware of this, and bank (literally) on the fact that "the vast majority of consumers, including those with the socioeconomic wherewithal to walk away from their debts, feel themselves morally bound and pay as agreed."

If you find yourself on the business end of a debt collector's harassment campaign, you can generally make it end simply by "carefully sending a series of letters invoking [your] rights under the FDCPA." The debt collector who receives these letters will have bought your debt at five cents on the dollar, and will simply write it off.

By contrast, the mere act of paying anything marks you out as substantially more likely to pay than nearly everyone else on their hit-list. Paying anything doesn't trigger forbearance, it invites a flood of harassing calls and letters, because you've demonstrated that you can be coerced into paying.

But while learning FDCPA rules isn't overly difficult, it's also beyond the wherewithal of the most distressed debtors (and people falsely accused of being debtors). McKenzie recounts that many of the people he helped were living under chaotic circumstances that put seemingly simple things "like writing letters and counting to 30 days" beyond their needs.

This means that the people best able to defend themselves against illegal shakedowns are less likely to be targeted. Instead, debt collectors husband their resources so they can use them "to do abusive and frequently illegal shakedowns of the people the legislation was meant to benefit."

Here's how this debt market works. If you become delinquent in meeting your credit card payments ("delinquent" has a flexible meaning that varies with each issuer), then your debt will be sold to a collector. It is packaged in part of a large spreadsheet – a CSV file – and likely sold to one of 10 large firms that control 75% of the industry.

The "mom and pops" who have the other quarter of the industry might also get your debt, but it's more likely that they'll buy it as a kind of tailings from one of the big guys, who package up the debts they couldn't collect on and sell them at even deeper discounts.

The people who make the calls are often barely better off than the people they're calling. They're minimally trained and required to work at a breakneck pace. Employee turnover is 75-100% annually: imagine the worst call center job in the world, and then make it worse, and make "success" into a moral injury, and you've got the debt-collector rank-and-file.

To improve the yield on this awful process, debt collection companies start by purging these spreadsheets of likely duds: dead people, people with very low credit-scores, and people who appear on a list of debtors who know their rights and are likely to stand on them (that's right, merely insisting on your rights can ensure that the entire debt-collection industry leaves you alone, forever).

The FDPCA gives you rights: for example, you have the right to verify the debt and see the contract you signed when you took it on. The debt collector who calls you almost certainly does not have that contract and can't get it. Your original lender might, but they stopped caring about your debt the minute they sold it to a debt-collector. Their own IT systems are baling-wire-and-spit Rube Goldberg machines that glue together the wheezing computers of all the companies they've bought over the last 25 years. Retrieving your paperwork is a nontrivial task, and the lender doesn't have any reason to perform it.

Debt collectors are bottom feeders. They are buying delinquent debts at 5 cents on the dollar and hoping to recover 8 percent of them; at 7 percent, they're losing money. They aren't "large, nationally scaled, hypercompetent operators" – they're shoestring operations that can only be viable if they hire unskilled workers and fail to train them.

They are subject to automatic damages for illegal behavior, but they still break the law all the time. As McKenzie writes, a debt collector will "commit three federal torts in a few minutes of talking to a debtor then follow up with a confirmation of the same in writing." A statement like "if you don’t pay me I will sue you and then Immigration will take notice of that and yank your green card" makes the requisite three violations: a false threat of legal action, a false statement of affiliation with a federal agency, and "a false alleged consequence for debt nonpayment not provided for in law."

If you know this, you can likely end the process right there. If you don't, buckle in. The one area that debt collectors invest heavily in is the automation that allows them to engage in high-intensity harassment. They use "predictive dialers" to make multiple calls at once, only connecting the collector to the calls that pick up. They will call you repeatedly. They'll call your family, something they're legally prohibited from doing except to get your contact info, but they'll do it anyway, betting that you'll scrape up $250 to keep them from harassing your mother.

These dialing systems are far better organized than any of the company's record keeping about what you owe. A company may sell your debt on and fail to keep track of it, with the effect that multiple collectors will call you about the same debt, and even paying off one of them will not stop the other.

Talking to these people is a bad idea, because the one area where collectors get sophisticated training is in emptying your bank account. If you consent to a "payment plan," they will use your account and routing info to start whacking your bank account, and your bank will let them do it, because the one part of your conversation they reliably record is this payment plan rigamarole. Sending a check won't help – they'll use the account info on the front of your check to undertake "demand debits" from your account, and backstop it with that recorded call.

Any agreement on your part to get on a payment plan transforms the old, low-value debt you incurred with your credit card into a brand new, high value debt that you owe to the bill collector. There's a good chance they'll sell this debt to another collector and take the lump sum – and then the new collector will commence a fresh round of harassment.

McKenzie says you should never talk to a debt collector. Make them put everything in writing. They are almost certain to lie to you and violate your rights, and a written record will help you prove it later. What's more, debt collection agencies just don't have the capacity or competence to engage in written correspondence. Tell them to put it in writing and there's a good chance they'll just give up and move on, hunting softer targets.

One other thing debt collectors due is robo-sue their targets, bulk-filing boilerplate suits against debtors, real and imaginary. If you don't show up for court (which is what usually happens), they'll get a default judgment, and with it, the legal right to raid your bank account and your paycheck. That, in turn, is an asset that, once again, the debt collector can sell to an even scummier bottom-feeder, pocketing a lump sum.

McKenzie doesn't know what will fix this. But Michael Hudson, a renowned scholar of the debt practices of antiquity, has some ideas. Hudson has written eloquently and persuasively about the longstanding practice of jubilee, in which all debts were periodically wiped clean (say, whenever a new king took the throne, or once per generation):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#jubilee

Hudson's core maxim is that "debt's that can't be paid won't be paid." The productive economy will have need for credit to secure the inputs to their processes. Farmers need to borrow every year for labor, seed and fertilizer. If all goes according to plan, the producer pays off the lender after the production is done and the goods are sold.

But even the most competent producer will eventually find themselves unable to pay. The best-prepared farmer can't save every harvest from blight, hailstorms or fire. When the producer can't pay the creditor, they go a little deeper into debt. That debt accumulates, getting worse with interest and with each bad beat.

Run this process long enough and the entire productive economy will be captive to lenders, who will be able to direct production for follies and fripperies. Farmers stop producing the food the people need so they can devote their land to ornamental flowers for creditors' tables. Left to themselves, credit markets produce hereditary castes of lenders and debtors, with lenders exercising ever-more power over debtors.

This is socially destabilizing; you can feel it in McKenzie's eloquent, barely controlled rage at the hopeless structural knot that produces the abusive and predatory debt industry. Hudson's claim is that the rulers of antiquity knew this – and that we forgot it. Jubilee was key to producing long term political stability. Take away Jubilee and civilizations collapse:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/08/jubilant/#construire-des-passerelles

Debts that can't be paid won't be paid. Debt collectors know this. It's irrefutable. The point of debt markets isn't to ensure that debts are discharged – it's to ensure that every penny the hereditary debtor class has is transferred to the creditor class, at the hands of their fellow debtors.

In her 2021 Paris Review article "America's Dead Souls," Molly McGhee gives a haunting, wrenching account of the debts her parents incurred and the harassment they endured:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/05/17/americas-dead-souls/

After I published on it, many readers wrote in disbelief, insisting that the debt collection practices McGhee described were illegal:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/19/zombie-debt/#damnation

And they are illegal. But debt collection is a trade founded on lawlessness, and its core competence is to identify and target people who can't invoke the law in their own defense.

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” today (Aug 12) at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-not-pay/#fair-debt-collection-practices-act

[pcongrp]

Conversational AI vs. Generative AI: Understanding the Differences and Applications

Conversational AI and Generative AI are two prominent branches of artificial intelligence technology, each with unique capabilities and applications. Conversational AI focuses on simulating human-like interactions through chatbots and virtual assistants, primarily designed to understand and respond to user inputs in a natural, conversational manner. This technology leverages natural language processing (NLP) to facilitate effective communication between humans and machines, making it ideal for customer service, support, and engagement.

On the other hand, Generative AI extends beyond conversation to create content such as text, images, and music that mimics human creativity. It uses techniques like deep learning and machine learning models to generate new data instances that do not explicitly replicate the training data. Applications of Generative AI are vast, ranging from content creation and media production to drug discovery and legal document automation.

Both technologies have transformative potential but serve different purposes. While Conversational AI enhances interaction and communication efficiencies, Generative AI drives innovation by creating novel content. Understanding their distinctions helps businesses and developers choose the right AI tools for their specific needs, maximizing the benefits of AI technology.