Future of Payments: Voice-enabled Financial Services

Payments are rapidly changing, with new technologies on the horizon that will transform the way we pay for products and services. One of the most intriguing advancements in this sector is voice-activated payment processing, which has the potential to speed up, secure, and make payments more easy.

 

In this article, we'll look at the future of payments, including the advent of voice-activated payment processing and how these technologies will affect how we pay for goods and services.

 

Why is Voice Technology needed in Financial Services

 

To some individuals, voice search and assistants like Siri and Alexa may appear to be gimmicks—helpful to a point, but not a huge role in financial services CX. Even the most modest estimates indicate that 30% of adults actively use speech technology. On the opposite end of the scale, the most widely referenced statistic for speech technology predicts that by 2025, voice searches would account for 50% of total searches.

 

Whatever perspective you take on voice adoption, one thing is certain: voice technology has become an integral element of consumer behavior, and financial services organizations must respond.

 

Using talks to provide financial services may appear difficult. However, voice payments provide a chance for banks and other financial institutions to leverage on the concept of developing their own brand identity. Virtual assistants can be designed to complement institutions' corporate identities and deliver tailored services based on a user's profile. The customized user experience is critical to fostering loyalty and paving the door for additional profitable acquisitions.

 

Voice-activated payment processing allows clients to pay by speaking commands rather than using physical cards or devices. This technique uses voice recognition software to authenticate a user's identity and securely execute payments.

 

The rising popularity of voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri is fueling the growth of speech-activated payment processing.

 

Also Read | What is Voice Biometrics

 

Use Cases of Voice Enabled Financial Services

 

The banking industry should pay attention and recognise the potential benefits of speech technology. The retail industry, like other industries, is pioneering new innovations. Market leaders are busily outfitting consumers' homes with smart speakers and teaching them on how to use speech-operated services, guaranteeing that Siri, Alexa, or one of their pals are present and ready to listen as soon as consumers drop their last reservations about voice technology.

 

We have listed some of the major uses of voice enabled financial services in the banking sector below- 

 

1. Voice Automation in Call Centres

 

Voice solutions for customer support lines are growing more sophisticated. Even more sophisticated demands, such as banning your credit card and requesting your most recent bookings, can be handled by artificial service managers. Customer identity and even extremely specialized dialects (Spitch controls calls in Swiss German in existing use cases) are not obstacles for modern systems. A digital voice assistant in your call center frees up operators to handle more difficult issues, increasing overall service availability.

 

2. Biometric identity and fraud prevention

 

Proper customer identification on digital channels can be achieved in three ways. You can ask consumers for something only they know (a password or a PIN), something they own (a card or a smart phone code), and finally their biometric features (fingerprints, facial recognition). Voice recognition falls into that last group and has several inherent advantages over other biometric procedures

 

3. Personal Banking

 

The most fundamental application of voice technology in financial services is to meet transactional personal finance requirements. Allowing consumers to check account balances, transfer money, make credit card payments, handle bills and so on via voice technology may not appear to be a significant advance. But just by opening a new channel for customers to interact with your services, you increase engagement and satisfy the needs of increasingly connected consumers.

 

4. Lending

 

In the lending sector, voice assistants can help automate loan applications, loan payments, application status checks, interest rate queries, refinancing start, and other tasks. Instead of using conventional decision trees, speech technology makes the experience more conversational, resulting in more clients moving through your funnel.

 

5. Omnichannel Financial Assistants

 

Self-service is becoming increasingly common in the financial services industry. Consumers will take full advantage of the ability to navigate a brand contact without having to call an agent. However, the majority of financial services funnels cannot be fully automated. This could alter as voice technology advances. Create an omnichannel financial assistant with voice technologies to give contextual advice and services at any point of the financial buyer's journey.

 

6. Voice-guided mobile banking applications

 

Are you already on your end-client's phone, using a mobile banking app? Given that mobile phones already have all of the elements required for a speech technology solution, take advantage of this fortunate starting point and allow your clients to speak. Voice can be used to identify clients in mobile banking in a secure and simple manner. Both at the beginning of a transaction and – as a specific characteristic of voice – during a dictated instruction for a trade or payment. This has the potential to add a further layer of security to mobile banking.

 

7. Video-based customer onboarding procedure

 

Many financial authorities have either established or are developing regulations to facilitate digital customer onboarding. The collection of a voice sample from new clients can be simply integrated into this type of client onboarding. Samples can also be cross-checked against a fraudster blacklist (see biometric identification and fraud prevention) or an existing client database.

 

Also Read | Mickey: The voice Assistant

 

Drawback of Voice Enabled Financial Systems

 

Voice payments, like any other emerging technology, come with their own set of issues. The main concerns that have slowed the adoption of voice payments are security and privacy.

 

The problems came to the fore when certain critical Bluetooth flaws exposed security loopholes in millions of AI-powered devices including Amazon Echo and Google Home. Furthermore, an increase in the number of CNP or Card Not Present frauds have questioned the effectiveness of the voice payments system.

 

Furthermore, voice assistants have yet to develop the ability to reliably distinguish voices, which is required to avoid cybertheft. It has frequently been noted that virtual assistants are mistakenly activated and provide unlawful access to payment facilities.

 

The lack of a fail-proof authentication method is being closely scrutinized by innovators around the world. Accurate voice biometrics, better voice encryption, single-use voice tokens, and multi-factor authentication mechanisms are among the suggested solutions to address the deficiencies.

 

Future of Voice Payments

 

Voice recognition in banking is already changing how we search, shop, and travel. In time, it will change the way we engage with financial institutions. Virtual assistants and digital concierges will become indispensable in our daily lives, whether at home, at work, in the vehicle, or while traveling and shopping. All we need to do is create voice-based financial software that consumers trust.

 

As technology advances, digital assistants are likely to become more accurate and smart. Virtual assistants are on their approach to losing the label of scripted computers and adopting the function of a reactive listener, anticipating a user's wants and making the most relevant recommendations.