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July 16, 2013

New Nuance Voice Biometrics Platform Foreshadows More Smart Voice Services

By Doug Mohney, Contributing Editor

Adding value to IP-based voice – what I like to call "Smart Voice" services – is bound to be big business over the next five years. Nuance (News - Alert) has unveiled its next generation voice biometrics platform and will be a key player in the Smart Voice generation.   Last year, voice biometric solutions for authentication grew by over 74 percent, and the market is on target to grow at a compounded rate of 35 percent over the next five years.



Voice biometrics uses a customer's natural voice patterns with a spoken passphrase as a way to authenticate the identity of that person, providing an easier and faster method than PIN numbers, passwords, and multiple security questions.  Multi-factor authentication is all the rage, so voice biometrics provides another way to confirm customer ID.

A customer's unique voiceprint can be used across all voice-enabled media types and customer service channels, including IVR, call center, mobile app, and on the web. For enterprises, voice biometrics is a big hit.

"The acceptance of voice biometrics is accelerating, and has become one of the hottest areas of our business,” said Robert Weideman, general manager and executive vice president, Nuance Enterprise. “In just the past two years, the total number of consumers who have enrolled voiceprints with banks, mobile providers and other organizations has tripled – from 10 million to 30 million. Organizations recognize that by providing the natural voice interface and high level of security that voice biometrics affords – right at the point of authentication – they can deliver a much more compelling experience to their consumers, with enhanced security.”

The new voice biometrics release from Nuance boasts a 50 percent improvement in accuracy, "smart adaption" of a person's voiceprint and "significant enhancements" in the ability to detect attempts by bad actors to bypass authentication, according to the company.  

Nuance has an estimated 80 percent of the commercial market and lists Barclays Wealth, TD Waterhouse, Eastern Bank, Vanguard, Turkcell and T-Mobile (News - Alert) among its customers.

For service providers, voice biometrics presents numerous opportunities. Internally, voice biometrics can decrease customer service time within the call center by providing faster authentication of customers. It can also be used to authenticate mobile workers in any processes requiring higher levels of security.

Voice biometrics would also make a fitting service to offer businesses of most any size for use in any activity requiring authentication, including general call center operations as well as financial and healthcare verticals. I expect to see VBaaS (Voice Biometrics as a service) to start appearing as an add-on to cloud-based offerings in the next 12 to 24 months, with an initial focus on call centers.




Edited by Blaise McNamee
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