Talkdesk has positioned itself as the AI-first contact centre platform. Talkdesk Autopilot handles conversational AI, Talkdesk Copilot assists live agents, and the platform's AI capabilities extend across quality management, workforce optimisation, and customer experience analytics.
But when a customer on a Talkdesk call says "I'd like to pay," the AI hits a wall.
Talkdesk does not have native PCI-compliant payment capture. Autopilot can handle intent recognition, account lookups, scheduling, and escalation, but it cannot securely capture a 16-digit card number. There is no built-in payment gateway integration, and no mechanism to process a card transaction within a voice flow while maintaining PCI compliance.
This guide covers how a Talkdesk-based operation can add secure payment capture using Shuttle, enabling both human agents and AI agents to collect payments during calls without handling card data, and exactly what that involves today.
The Payment Gap in Talkdesk
Talkdesk's AI capabilities are industry-leading for conversation handling. But payment capture requires a fundamentally different kind of infrastructure, and the gap is significant:
No native payment processing. Talkdesk does not have a built-in payment engine. There is no way to trigger a card transaction from within a Talkdesk Studio flow, an Autopilot conversation, or an agent interaction without external integration.
No secure card capture. If a customer enters card digits via keypad during a Talkdesk call, those tones are audible to the agent and captured in call recordings. This immediately puts your telephony, recording, and storage infrastructure into full PCI scope.
No AI-to-payment handoff. Talkdesk Autopilot can detect when a customer wants to pay, but it cannot execute the payment. The typical workaround is escalating to a human agent, which defeats the purpose of AI-driven automation and increases cost per interaction.
No multi-PSP routing. Enterprise customers need to route payments to their own gateways. A utility company on Talkdesk needs payments going to Worldpay. An insurance company needs Adyen. A BPO needs to route to a different gateway for each of its clients. Without multi-PSP support, every customer is forced onto whatever gateway the payment partner supports.
Full PCI scope. Any attempt to capture card data within the Talkdesk environment, whether through agent conversation, IVR, or AI, creates PCI scope across your entire infrastructure. SAQ-D compliance is expensive, time-consuming, and operationally burdensome.
For organisations that chose Talkdesk for its AI capabilities, the inability to complete payment transactions is a significant limitation. The AI can do everything except the thing the customer called to do.
How Shuttle works with Talkdesk today
Let's be straight about the model, because it determines whether Shuttle is a fit:
There is no native Talkdesk integration today. Shuttle's voice payment capture runs on Twilio Pay (Shuttle is Twilio's preferred payments partner). You invoke that Twilio-based setup; you do not install a Shuttle app inside Talkdesk.
You need to be a Twilio customer to use voice payments.
You need technical resource to implement it. Shuttle is a self-service, developer-oriented solution. Shuttle provides ready-made interfaces for payment links and the PCI-compliant capture, IVR, and APIs for voice, but you build the agent-side (or AI-side) interface for your own Talkdesk workflow, because every contact-centre platform is different.
A native Talkdesk integration is possible as a paid project. We can build one for your deployment at a project cost.
Carrier-agnostic is on the roadmap. A version that removes the Twilio requirement is coming; today, Twilio is the live path.
If you have the technical resource and are (or can be) a Twilio customer, here is how the pieces fit together.
Secure card capture (voice)
When it is time to pay, the card is captured in a secure, PCI DSS Level 1 call via Twilio Pay. The customer enters their card details on their phone keypad, and the digits are captured inside Shuttle's certified environment. They never reach your Talkdesk recordings, your Autopilot pipeline, or your agents. See the Twilio IVR & Agent Assist payment docs for the technical flow.
Triggering from Autopilot or a live agent
You can trigger the secure capture via Shuttle's APIs from a live agent's interface or from an Autopilot flow when payment intent is detected. The payment result is returned to your flow so the conversation can continue (confirming the payment, providing a reference number). The connecting logic between Talkdesk and Shuttle is something you build, because Talkdesk does not have a pre-built Shuttle app today.
Payment Links
This is the most turnkey path. Shuttle generates payment links and sends them via SMS or email, including mid-call to a customer who is still on the line. The customer taps the link, enters card details on a secure hosted page, and confirmation is returned in real time. Shuttle provides the link interfaces out of the box, and links work even with gateways that don't support voice capture. See the Payment Links docs.
Agent experience
For voice, the agent (or AI flow) triggers the capture and sees the result without ever handling card data, but the agent-facing screen for your Talkdesk workflow is something you build against Shuttle's APIs (it can be prototyped quickly). Shuttle does not ship a pre-built agent widget for Talkdesk today.
How a voice payment works
The call proceeds on Talkdesk as normal, with a live agent or Talkdesk Autopilot.
Payment is triggered from your agent interface, or via API from an Autopilot flow when payment intent is detected.
Card captured securely. The card is captured in a PCI DSS Level 1 call via Twilio Pay; the customer enters their card on the keypad, and the digits are captured inside Shuttle's certified environment.
Transaction is processed. Shuttle routes to the configured PSP, any of 30+ supported gateways, and the transaction is authorised in real time.
Result returned to your interface or Autopilot flow via webhook, so an agent can confirm the outcome or Autopilot can continue: "Your payment of forty-seven pounds has been processed. Your reference number is..."
No card data in Talkdesk. The card digits never touch your Talkdesk recordings, your CRM, or your agent workstations.
One honest caveat: the secure capture at the point of payment is what's live now (via Twilio Pay). Shuttle being present for the entire Talkdesk conversation, or cleanly returning the caller to the same agent and call afterwards, is not yet turnkey. That fuller call control is where the carrier-agnostic version, landing later in 2026, is headed.
Multi-PSP Support
Enterprise organisations using Talkdesk typically need payment routing flexibility that goes beyond a single gateway.
Shuttle supports 30+ payment gateways with configurable routing:
By merchant — each end client or business unit routes to its own gateway. A BPO using Talkdesk for multiple clients routes Client A's payments to Stripe, Client B's to Worldpay, Client C's to Adyen.
By region — multinational enterprises route UK payments to one gateway, US payments to another, and European payments to a third, optimising for settlement speed and transaction costs.
By failover — if the primary gateway is unavailable, transactions automatically route to a backup.
By card type — route specific card brands to gateways with better rates for those brands.
Switching processors later is straightforward; gateway choice is configuration, not a re-integration. One caveat for voice specifically: a small number of gateways (for example Braintree) don't permit the raw card data to be passed to them, so they don't work for voice capture, though they do work for payment links.
PCI Compliance
Shuttle is a PCI DSS Level 1 certified Service Provider, the highest level of payment security certification in the industry.
Because the card is captured in the secure Twilio Pay call, card data never enters your Talkdesk environment. Your telephony systems, call recordings, agent workstations, Autopilot infrastructure, and AI pipelines stay out of PCI scope, keeping you on the lighter SAQ-A path. Full compliance documentation is in the security docs.
This is especially important for Talkdesk users running AI transcription, summarisation, and analytics. Because card data is never in the audio stream that reaches Talkdesk, your AI processes only non-sensitive conversation data.
Voice payments cost $0.20 per successful transaction with no setup fees, no per-seat licensing, and no monthly minimums. Payment links are currently free (a new pricing model is coming).
Use Cases
Insurance
Insurance contact centres are among the largest Talkdesk adopters. Premium collections, renewal payments, claims settlements, and payment plan adjustments are daily operations. Talkdesk Autopilot can handle the conversation; Shuttle handles the secure payment capture via Twilio Pay.
Collections and Debt Recovery
The moment a debtor agrees to pay is the highest-conversion moment in a collections call. Any delay reduces the likelihood of payment, though a mid-call payment link keeps the customer on the line. With Shuttle, the payment is captured immediately, in-call, whether the conversation is with an agent or an AI.
Utilities
Utility companies process high volumes of bill payments through contact centres. Talkdesk's AI capabilities can handle the majority of "I want to pay my bill" calls. Adding Shuttle's secure capture lets the AI hand off the payment leg to Twilio Pay and confirm the result. At scale, this reduces cost per interaction.
Travel and Hospitality
Travel companies use Talkdesk for booking changes, cancellations, and upgrades, all involving payments. Multi-currency support and multi-PSP routing handle the complexity of international travel transactions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Shuttle have a native Talkdesk integration?
Not today. Shuttle's voice capture runs on Twilio Pay (we're Twilio's preferred payments partner), and you invoke that setup rather than installing a Shuttle app in Talkdesk. You'll need to be a Twilio customer and to build the agent-side or Autopilot-side interface for your workflow. We can build a native Talkdesk integration as a paid project, and a carrier-agnostic version is on our roadmap.
Does this require Twilio?
Yes, today. The secure card capture runs via Twilio Pay, where Shuttle is the certified payment connector. The carrier-agnostic version that removes this requirement is on our roadmap.
Can Shuttle work with Talkdesk Autopilot?
Yes, via Shuttle's APIs. When Autopilot detects payment intent, your flow can trigger the secure Twilio Pay capture and receive the result so the conversation continues. You build the connecting logic, because Talkdesk does not have a pre-built Shuttle app today.
Can we just use payment links instead of voice capture?
Yes. Many teams use links only, sent via SMS or email, including mid-call. Links are the most turnkey part of Shuttle and work with gateways that don't support voice capture.
Can we try it before committing?
Yes. You can build a proof of concept against Shuttle's sandbox gateway and demo app to see the IVR flow, then move to a compatible production gateway when you're ready.
How many gateways does Shuttle support?
30+ payment gateways including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, Checkout.com, Braintree, Square, Mollie, and many more. Multiple gateways can be active simultaneously with routing rules, and switching is configuration, not a re-integration.
What does Shuttle cost?
$0.20 per successful transaction for voice, no setup fees, no per-seat licensing, no monthly minimums. Payment links are currently free.
Related Reading
PCI-Compliant Payments for Contact Centres — the complete guide to contact centre payment processing
Twilio Pay Connectors — how Shuttle integrates with Twilio's payment infrastructure
Voice Payments — comprehensive guide to voice payment capture
AI Voice Agent PCI Payments — adding payments to AI voice agents
Embedded Payments for CCaaS — the platform operator's guide to CCaaS payments
Get Started
Shuttle adds PCI-compliant payment capture to a Talkdesk operation via Twilio, for both human agents and Autopilot, without expanding your PCI scope or locking your merchants into a single gateway. We'll walk you through what's live today and the path for your setup.
See Voice Checkout | Book a discovery call