Developer Builds AI Agent to Automatically Recover Failed SaaS Payments

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A developer created 'Dunning,' a full-stack web application featuring an AI agent designed to autonomously recover failed payments for SaaS businesses, as an entry for the All Things Agentic Hackathon on Devpost. The system targets involuntary churn — revenue lost when payments fail due to expired cards or bank declines — a problem the developer felt existing solutions, including collections agencies charging 25–30% of recoveries, handled poorly. When a payment fails, the AI agent identifies the debtor, accounts for their timezone and jurisdiction, and sends a tailored sequence of recovery emails with unique one-click payment links. If a debtor replies, the agent can negotiate directly, offering payment plans or discounts based on pre-set organisational rules, all without human involvement. Built on Next.js, Python/FastAPI, Google Cloud, and Gemini AI, the project encountered real-world challenges during development, including a production database migration failure that caused hours of downtime.

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