Nuance Communications has issued two press releases that emphasize the game changing role that voice-based authentication is playing to improve customer care. The releases coincide with Day One of Voice Biometrics Conference – San Francisco. The first release confirms that Barclay’s Wealth & Investment Management unit is employing the FreeSpeech (text independent) voice biometric platform to support “passive” enrollment and authentication of clients. Simply stated, Barclay’s can gain strong confidence in the identity of a caller by monitoring the conversation between a client and his or her financial adviser and comparing it to a voiceprint that has been generated from past conversations. Clients are not required to enroll by repeating phrases, nor do they have to say that phrase in order to carry out their business.

The second release provides results from two recent surveys that show how this sort of passive authentication appeals to the public at large. When the results of a recent survey conducted by Nuance of 900 smartphone users are combined with those generated by Coleman Parkes and Opus Research in a report issued last July, you get a picture of a frustrated set of consumers ready to take advantage of new technologies that reduce the time it takes to carry out their business both over the phone and online.

Customer frustration results from failure to remember PINs, passwords or a set of challenge questions (many of which are not of the caller’s making). One of the major themes at Voice Biometrics Conference – San Francisco is that passwords can be rendered passe. We have the technologies and we have the demand. Barclay’s approach is one example, but there are many more. For instance, the conference agenda leads off with a keynote from PayPal’s Michael Barrett, who is also the chairperson of the FIDO Alliance (Fast ID Online Alliance), a consortium that is poised to replace passwords with a number of multi-factor alternatives.

A brave, new world of highly-personalized and secure interactions over mobile phones and electronic devices in cars and homes once the process of authenticating is made trivial. The Barclay’s example will be followed by many more and initiatives like the FIDO Alliance are just getting started.

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Intelligent Authentication, Articles

Tags: Voice biometrics, authentication, Contact Centers, Financial Services, mobile security