How our voices are key to fighting financial services fraud

An opinion piece by the CTO of Intelligent Voice, a transcription and analytics services firm

Fraud brings significant challenges to the financial services industry. Anti-fraud strategies must be comprehensive and effective without disrupting the customer experience, able to detect fraudulent activity before it causes any damage. New and innovative measures must be adopted to stay ahead of the rapidly changing nature of organized criminal fraud.

Technologies such as LexiQal are integrating voice recognition technology with AI, creating a continuously evolving anti-fraud strategy that can detect fraud at the earliest possible moment. Now is the time to invest in these new technological approaches to protect financial services in the years to come.

Historically, audio and video data have been challenging to collect and analyze. Human error and time-consuming processes have led to often erroneous fraud detection, with many fraudulent claims slipping through the cracks. Voice recognition AI and machine learning are revolutionizing these problems, closing the cracks and translating audio data into a practical, understandable format.

Voice recognition AI − covering processes such as Conversational AI, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) − can be utilized collaboratively to facilitate updated and comprehensive fraud prevention.

With the ability to analyze behavioral indicators, language features, and speech characteristics, it can assist greatly in detecting fraudulent intent in the background of customer phone calls without the involvement of customer service agents.

Using ML to spot traits that signal fraud

The term machine learning (ML) describes the process of automation for the purpose of evolution – where technology can learn from its collected data and adapt accordingly. For example, if a certain speech characteristic (such as hesitancy and hedging) is suddenly more present in fraudulent calls, machine learning will identify this rise, record the necessary data and adapt its detection systems to better recognize the feature.

Developments in the capabilities of voice recognition and AI have resulted in the ability to identify and recognize several behavioral, speech, and language features. Technologies such as LexiQal are developed using these voice recognition AI processes in collaboration with law enforcement behavioral experts, ensuring that the correct indicators are being identified for fraudulent intent.

These features include hedging, negation, hesitancy, and over-emotional or intense language. As the most common indicators of fraudulent intent change and evolve, so will voice recognition AI through machine learning. Working in the background, voice recognition AI tracks the presence of these indicators, alerting the relevant staff wherever required.

Transforming fraud prevention

Although already in motion, the digitization of the finance sector was significantly accelerated by factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Paired with recent technological advances in finance, companies can expect that a large volume of customer interactions will now remain digital, through phone calls, video links, and online chats. This transition in the conduct of financial services requires a shift in fraud prevention – a change that may be far more beneficial to finance companies.

Previously, the responsibility of detecting fraudulent intent lay predominantly on the shoulders of customer service agents handling customers face-to-face. Even over phone calls, call handlers were expected to manage the potential fraud with comparatively little external support. The availability of fraud management strategies based on voice recognition AI takes this pressure off employees, allowing them to give their full attention to the provision of excellent customer service.

GPU-powered transcription, boosted by voice recognition AI processes such as NLP (natural language processing), opens the door to new opportunities for data collection, organization, and application.

Operating in the background of customer interactions with minimal human involvement, these processes automatically structure audio and video data on the trade floor, in online meetings, during video calls, and in the background of phone calls. As a result, contact centers are covered with far more comprehensive anti-fraud measures, with the ability to dissect and apply previously ‘challenging’ data.

Benefits extend beyond fraud prevention

Through voice recognition AI, the dissection, organization, and application of audio and video data can also be applied to customer protection, regulatory compliance, and sales enablement.

Breaking down and examining the semantics and behavioral indicators of customer interactions allows for a far greater understanding of the customer experience. Identifying the most and least effective sales techniques, which ones generate positive interactions, and which instill customer confidence, can lead to the data-driven optimization of the sales process.

Accompanying the rapid evolution of financial services is the increasing intensity and complexity of regulatory compliance. Organized, comprehensive records are vital in demonstrating compliance and may be valuable in contesting accusations of incorrect practice.

Records of customer interactions can even be utilized in customer protection. Pressure is being applied to financial services to ensure their practices are consistently in line with the public interest, especially the protection of vulnerable customers from corporate exploitation.

Voice recognition AI can also identify speech and language features that indicate vulnerability and confusion, allowing customer services agents to provide the necessary support and additional services where required.

The fast-evolving nature of both the finance sector and organized fraud requires adaptive, flexible technology that can perform multiple roles within a business. Voice recognition AI not only provides the most comprehensive anti-fraud cover, but it also assists financial services in sales enablement, regulatory compliance, and customer protection.