Bilt Rewards

Scaling finops without scaling headcount

FintechOperations
Jake Hakanson, Director of Customer Solutions at Bilt
Bilt Rewards: Scaling finops without scaling headcount
THE CHALLENGE

Manual Verification Burden

Members at unaffiliated properties often pay rent manually (Venmo, Zelle, check) and submit screenshots for points. Agents had to verify every submission one-by-one in Zendesk: confirming it was rent-related, extracting amounts, checking eligibility, and manually posting credits.

Result: thousands of agent hours, inconsistent accuracy, and delays for members.

THE SOLUTION

Automated Document Processing

Cotera and Bilt launched an automation pipeline:

1

Ticket ID & Routing

Detects 'manual rent point' requests and queues them automatically

2

Image Analysis (OCR + classification)

Validates screenshots; extracts amount, payment method, and context

3

Structured Output

Posts clean internal notes and compiles member → points sheets for bulk processing

4

Eligibility Checks

Cross-references program requirements; flags edge cases for humans

5

Member Messaging (Next)

Auto-acks and timelines in Zendesk; routes exceptions to agents

THE RESULTS

Operational Efficiency

Time saved

Thousands of agent hours/month eliminated with >10× ROI

Speed

Points processed within 24 hours with consistent accuracy and auditability

Scale

Handles growth without linear headcount; frees team for higher-value support

Cotera's AI agent automates verification, extraction, and points addition—what used to require manual review for each submission.

Want to try Bilt Rewards's use case out for yourself?

Sign up for Cotera and start building AI agents today

Join the waitlist