In one minute, an average person can speak five times as many words as they can type. After all, voice is the most natural and efficient form of communication. Awe-inspiring advancements in voice-related technologies took digital voice assistants mainstream.
By early 2020, 75% of iPhone owners have used Siri, and 63% of Android owners have communicated with the Google Assistant on their smartphone. More than a third of U.S. adults owned a speaker with a voice assistant. Even the pandemic couldn’t halt the demand for voice assistants, with experts saying that the coronavirus has accelerated their adoption by three to four years.
Although voice technology offers many useful functions and features, it is still limited, and its potential is mostly untapped. Only when it will be successfully integrated into payments, banking, and financial operations, will it have a true and lasting impact on our daily lives. At SDK.finance, we believe that a voice-based payment experience will be the future of FinTech.
What opportunities do voice payments unlock for banks and financial companies?
- Next-generation customer experience
Asking a voice assistant to send some money over to Frank is much easier than endlessly typing in account numbers, IBANS, and double-checking information between apps. The same goes for voice payments, balance checks, and withdrawal alerts. Everyday operations can be that much faster and more convenient.
- More banking products used on the go
Powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies, voice payment enables customers behind the wheel, on the run, or with their hands full to effortlessly interact with their finances using a voice assistant on their device. Nowadays 51% of users use a voice assistant in the car. For over 2.2 billion people worldwide affected by blindness and vision impairments, that is an unprecedented way to manage their money directly and independently.
- Minimizing fraud risks
Over 100 physical and behavioral characteristics make voice as unique to an individual as fingerprints, enabling biometric authentication in real-time. Multi-factor authentication powered by voice biometrics can detect if a consumer is who they say they are.
- New wow-features to retain customers
Voice payments will be a differentiating feature for established banks and newcomers alike. It’s a new platform to build first-class products that rely on the latest technology and trends. Building up customer lifetime value is easier when there’s something special to offer. Voice assistants can help customers understand current offerings, products, and receive special offers through casual chat whenever they feel like it.
- Better KYC
Voice commands unlock a new channel of information for more context from clients. It’s an opportunity to systematically improve customer security and, therefore, lower the chance of fraud and money laundering across the industry.
Voice payments challenges
The lack of interoperability is a significant challenge for the industry because customers can be locked in the voice ecosystems created by Big Tech. As a recent EU antitrust investigation pointed out, the industry needs standardization to make systems compatible and interoperable. One standard within an open and contestable market will make touchless a better way to pay.
Once interoperability is introduced, the potential for voice payments will be enormous. Roughly 80% of consumers already report satisfaction with the voice shopping experience. As new voice-only payment methods appear, it will be even easier for consumers to shop online.
As with most AI projects, creating a successful voice banking product from scratch to make banking seamless for customers is harder than it looks. This is the main reason that banks are working with companies like SDK.finance to add voice banking based on the architecture of existing voice assistants, which is far easier and relatively simpler to build.
The convenience, security, and reach of the maturing voice payments technology will take customer experience to an entirely new level. To get a preview of what it can look like, click here.
