It wasn't so long ago that we got a look at how voice recognition biometrics was poised to explode on the scene in a very big way, with a Tractica report suggesting that so-called speaker recognition tools would see the total license count spiral upward from 49 million in 2015 to 565.8 million by just 2024. Recently, we got a look at one specific such use case, as Eastern Bank was set to put in voice identification systems at the bank's call center operations.
Previously, calling into an Eastern Bank call center—according to reports—was something of a difficult process. Callers would be prompted with security questions not unlike those designed to retrieve a forgotten password, referencing a high school mascot, or a note about the last transaction carried out. But now, with the new voice systems, Eastern Bank callers instead can just speak and get access to accounts.
Eastern Bank reportedly turned to Nuance (News - Alert) Communications to put the system in place. Nuance is a firm well-known in the field of voice services and particularly well-known for its Dragon Naturally Speaking line of voice transcription software. Eastern wouldn't talk about just how much the system cost, though given that Eastern has over 100 branches, as well as $9.5 billion in assets to its credit, it likely wasn't inexpensive. Reports suggest that Eastern now has the first voice identification system at a call center in North America.
Voice identification has several specific benefits to it, including the prevention of data breaches that have been so prevalent in recent days, as well as the reduction of time and difficulty involved in getting access to accounts. Customers aren't exactly happy with lengthy security procedures, even if such are used to protect a customer's life savings, and that means businesses like banks need stronger protections that are more rapidly accessed.
Customers won't be required to join. Rather, customers will have to opt-in to get in on the action. Once complete, the bank will take a representative voice sample that will store about 200 separate data points like pitch and cadence, and those data points will be used in comparison to future calls.
It's not hard to see why companies are interested in biometric protection systems. After all, a username and password can be guessed or otherwise brute-forced, but stealing someone's voiceprint is much harder, particularly by current standards. It's faster—just try typing a sentence and then reading that sentence to see which went faster—and easier overall; no need to remember complex phrases involving numbers, letters, characters, or as one “Dilbert” strip noted “doodles and squirrel noises”. Biometric defenses, therefore, become stronger and easier to maintain than password systems, and should provide better protection in the long run.
More and more businesses are likely to get behind this approach as well, but for right now, Eastern Bank is in a class by itself. That class will likely fill up fast, though, and the lesson of the day will be on the voice as a passport.
Edited by Maurice Nagle