Voice as Part of Our Biometric Profile
VoiceSignals #19 — Musings on Voice tech news
While financial institutions from all over the world move to enroll biometrics for opening new bank accounts, a range of unique identification parameters are being added to our biometric profile, including fingerprints, photos, voice recordings, and behavioral traits. Users are finding it easier to open accounts and conduct their financial activities from the comfort of their homes. Two out of five Malaysians expect to enroll biometrics when they open bank accounts, and more people in the country are comfortable opening accounts with smartphones than in the U.S. or Canada, according to new survey results released by Fico. In the UK, Fico found 71% of people are happy to provide a biometric to their bank.
While Voice recognition may not -yet- be a bulletproof authentication modality it has the advantage of simplicity as the user doesn’t need any sophisticated technology or training to deploy it. It’s also very natural for us humans to use our voice for interaction. Voice in combination with behavioral profiling can be a very effective tool for authentication and combating fraudsters. And we’re not just talking about logging into our bank accounts, but monitoring our actions through the whole banking process. How we ask for updates, how we move money, how we change our personal details, how we talk is very unique for every human. The Royal Bank of Scotland, which ranks among the world’s largest financial entities, launched behavioral biometrics technology back in 2016. After testing the platform on wealthy private account holders, the bank rolled out the solution to all 18.7 million of its customers in August 2018. Now, when users log in to manage their RBS accounts, an invisible program records their activity, registering more than 2,000-minute digital proclivities in an effort to detect fraudsters.
A 2019 Deloitte survey found that the top three channels for using biometric information are Contact/Call Centers (61%), App or Chatbots (both 59%), and Voicebots (56%). The survey also showed that despite voice ranking #3 behind fingerprint and facial recognition — Voice is on the rise and becoming increasingly important. “Fraud prevention is a key driver for implementation and companies are looking both internally as well as externally. Insider threats can be reduced as staff access privileges are tightened up alongside voice biometric introduction.”
Technology is making leaps daily and users are demanding banking services from the comfort of their own chair. Financial Institutions need to catch up.
What we read online…
Voice AI Podcasts You Won’t Want to Miss
Voice is one of the most significant emerging technologies nowadays. Engineers, influencers, entrepreneurs, and other #voice experts are creating a wide range of voice-AI themed content. And what’s a better way to talk about voice than podcasts? So, we’ve compiled a list of some voice-focused podcasts we enjoyed most, and we hope you’ll find interesting too. Have a great listening and don’t hesitate to propose your favorite voice podcast on our social media. Read more >
Behavioral AI for better Conversations with Customers
Join Dr. Nassos Katsamanis, VP of Engineering at Behavioral Signals, Petr Stransky, Managing Director at Stransky Consulting, and special host Kate Coops, Innovation Specialist, and Manager at KPMG for the webinar — How Behavioral AI can transform efficiency and quality of customer conversations by over 20% — where you’ll learn how Behavioral AI can be used in practical implementations with tangible results that increase the efficiency of your conversation with customers by 20%. You will discover how to empower your organization’s customer-facing contact centers and how to swiftly get back on the road to recovery. Join here >
Beep, the BBC voice assistant is live
The highly anticipated BBC voice assistant, Beep, while still in beta has been released to early adopters for testing on Windows operating systems. Having the national UK broadcaster, BBC, as its parent means accents and how the assistant speaks English is a priority. Something they will be focusing on along with more features in the coming months. What we’re interested to see is how the assistant will catch on considering the BBC is a producer of a wealth of content and with a very large audience. Will users keep on using Alexa and Google Assistant for their “Tell me the News by BBC” or prefer to switch over for a much more extensive briefing compared to the ‘BBC summary’ offered by Alexa and Google now? Content is always king in our books. Read here >
A Solution to Post-COVID Economical Changes, Especially Debt
During Behavioral Signals’ latest webinar on 2 Ways, Behavioral AI Can Help You Improve Your Debt Repayment Efforts Aris Karanikas, head of business development, and Dr. Nassos Katsamanis, VP of engineering, discussed how the current COVID-19 pandemic is going to affect the economy on both a macro and micro level. Karanikas explained how one of the key pieces of data that we must look for in financial institutions is the amount of Non-Performing Loans, also known as NPLs. As more and more loans become non-performing (90 days past due or non-accruing interest) in an economic downturn, the economy as a whole suffers. Banks have to shift their focus to recover as much of these as they can while they set funds aside to provide for bad debt, funds that would otherwise be available for new loans. Dr. Katsamanis discusses how institutions such as banks can apply behavioral AI technology to combat these economic changes. Read more or head over to the webinar recording.
