This blog post was co-authored by Genesys technology partner, LumenVox.

According to the 2020 Global Identity and Fraud Report, two-thirds of consumers say security continues to be the most important factor when deciding to engage with a business, followed closely by ease of access to their accounts. Customers want the best of both worlds: security and convenience. It’s the same for employees. A recent Upwork survey of hiring managers found that one-fifth of the workforce could be entirely remote after the COVID-19 pandemic. This reality is putting additional pressure on businesses to provide simple and secure authentication. The solution for this might be voice biometrics.

Voice biometrics validates a human’s claimed identity using the behavioral and physical patterns of voice. A biometric engine generates a voiceprint that’s unique to the individual, during the course of a normal conversation with a contact center agent or by prompting the user to speak a common passphrase, such as “My voice is my password.”

A Complete Cloud Solution

When you’re vetting an active authentication solution, most companies look for cloud capabilities. Cloud-based deployments equate to less effort. You can eliminate the limitations of an on-premises deployment, focusing less on hardware and technical support and more on customers.

Active voice biometrics specifically uses a person’s voice for validation instead of a complex password. This spoken passphrase is much easier to remember — and it’s a strong second factor in any risk-based multifactor authentication strategy. Because sensitive user information is decoupled from the biometric voiceprint, this enhances the security of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

As a second factor, this voiceprint authentication credential is ideal for high-risk transactions, as it does not require special hardware — expensive tokens, software downloads — or complex interactions. If you have an application requiring high levels of certainty, you can create greater peace of mind quickly and easily with voice.

Real-Life Relevance

Active voice biometrics is ideal for anyone who performs authentication in an IVR. It’s most widely deployed in financial services, but it’s still applicable to healthcare, telecommunications and insurance. Ideal applications include DTMF or voice-driven self-service for IVR applications.

And the technology can meet remote authentication needs. With people are doing most things virtually, voice biometrics lets callers authenticate using something they have will them at all times — their phones.

Biometric Barriers and Breakthroughs

Companies don’t use active voice biometrics for a number of reasons. The first reason is cost. Many companies have been given a quote that’s expensive, making the solution seem cost-prohibitive. But there are alternatives. With the right vendor, deployments are self-funding and carry an ROI in less than 12 months with a low upfront investment.

A second reason is internal resources. Institutions can get overwhelmed with the potential need to dedicate humans to the project. That’s why cloud deployments are the norm; the amount of effort needed from the enterprise is minimized.

With the right deployment, active voice biometrics can be productized, with accompanying best practices, requirements and direct connections to existing applications via web-based APIs. A big breakthrough is offered to your call center agents. They no longer have to interrogate the customer to capture information needed to complete authentication.

LumenVox offers active voice authentication on the Genesys CloudTM platform as an App Foundry premium application. This app provides the management, hosting and authentication service you need for a single, pre-packaged price.

For more information, attend the LumenVox webinar “A look at voice biometrics and why you should care” on September 22nd at 8 AM PST. And visit their Genesys Cloud and Genesys Multicloud CX listings in the AppFoundry marketplace.