Inside Send Payments' AI-First Strategy

Send Payments, a global payment infrastructure provider serving Australian customers worldwide, has elevated their operations by building an interconnected AI agent workforce. Led by CTO Ryk Neethling and Head of Product Eldert Bongers, the company partnered with Relevance AI to create specialized agents that deliver 24/7 customer service, automate compliance tasks, and give back 40 hours per week to their team.

The Challenge: Manual Processes in a Global Business

Send Payments faced operational challenges that many global companies struggle with:

• Manual lead qualification requiring account managers to research every prospect individually
• Time zone mismatches between Australian business hours and European customers
• Compliance requirements mandating call recording and QA for all conversations
• CRM inefficiency with account managers spending 8 minutes per conversation logging notes

The manual lead qualification process was particularly painful, requiring account managers to understand lead context before any meaningful interaction could happen. With customers spread across different time zones, immediate response became impossible during off-hours.

Lead qualifications in our business before implementing Relevance was an extremely manual process. It required one of our account managers to pick up a lead, understand the context of the lead... and that's before any transaction happens - Ryk Neethling, CTO

The Solution: Partnering with Relevance AI for Customization

Send Payments discovered Relevance AI through their BDR agent "Bosh" and immediately saw the potential across other department functions. After reviewing all available documentation, the leadership team realized this wasn't just another generic automation tool.

Key Decision Factors:

• True partnership approach - Collaborative relationship rather than vendor-client dynamic
• Deep customization - Agents built for specific business processes, not one-size-fits-all solutions
• Intelligence capabilities - Agents that understand intent and make contextual decisions
• Scalable ecosystem - Multiple agents that can interconnect for complex workflows

The platform's ability to understand intent and make intelligent decisions based on changing context, set it apart from basic automation tools.

We began to realize that Relevance is really a company that we see ourselves partnering with... it's way more customizable than just 'here's an agent - Ryk Neethling

The Results: Multiple AI Agents Delivering 24/7 Operations

Sam - Lead Qualification Agent:

• 24/7 customer response across all time zones
• Personalized communications - each of 10 daily leads gets unique, human-feeling responses
• Immediate comfort for customers without auto-reply experience
• Full automation achieved within days of implementation

Barry - QA Compliance Agent:

• Automated call analysis for all recorded conversations
• Compliance monitoring for regulated entity requirements
• Integration ready to connect with complaints system

CRM Sync Agent:

• 40 hours saved weekly across 300+ conversations
• 8 minutes per conversation eliminated from manual logging
• Two-way CRM integration for seamless data flow

Karen - Complaints & Compliance Ticketing:

• Automated ticketing for compliance issues
• Connected workflow with Barry for comprehensive monitoring

Building an Interconnected AI Ecosystem

Agent Development Process:

1. Each agent built for specific use cases initially
2. Independent operation ensuring focused functionality
3. Interconnected workflows unlocking complex automation
4. Non-technical team members able to build agents within weeks

Team Adoption:

• Product team embraced the platform immediately
• Non-technical staff learned through observation, created agents within weeks of training
• Hands-on experimentation culture developed

The real power emerges when individual agents connect to automate entire business processes, moving beyond single-task automation to comprehensive workflow management.

My product team has embraced Relevance really well. They're all in there getting their hands dirty, building out agents, building up tool sets - Eldert Bongers

What's Next: AI-First Transformation

Send Payments has moved beyond viewing AI as a potential solution to adopting an AI-first mindset across all operations. The shift goes far beyond incremental improvements - it's fundamentally redefining how the business operates.

The company can now deliver solutions without waiting for traditional development cycles, enabling rapid response to business needs. Their approach has become: if you can write a job description for a task, you can create an agent to handle it.

The impacts across our business is not just a little bit of change. It's transformational. We've absolutely moved from an AI is a potential to an AI first mindset in everything we do - Ryk Neethling

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