Could intelligent authentication be the key to improving your contact center security?
While fraud and similar threats are nothing new in the contact center, these issues have become more significant in recent years. With more contact center agents working from home, the number of criminals targeting insecure cloud connections has increased.
To make matters worse, fraudsters are leveraging more intelligent tools to bypass contact center security measures. Attacks are growing more sophisticated in the age of generative AI and deep fakes. Businesses now need to embrace more powerful, robust authentication measures.
With intelligent authentication solutions powered by concepts like biometrics, machine learning, and natural language processing, contact centers can do more than improve their security standards. They can also improve customer experiences, increase consumer trust, and preserve their reputation.
Here’s everything you need to know about the rise of intelligent authentication.
What is Intelligent Authentication?
The evolution of the contact center has changed how companies approach caller authentication on a massive scale. Organizations need to find ways of authenticating customers on different channels, such as chat and video. Plus, they need to think beyond basic authentication strategies.
Standard device-based and knowledge-based authentication methods, used by contact centers in the past, are no longer effective in a world of AI-driven fraud attacks. Business leaders must embrace new forms of intelligence to mitigate more intelligence threats.
Studies show that 53% of companies are now implementing AI specifically to improve customer experiences. Intelligent authentication is one example of how companies can leverage innovative solutions, like machine learning and biometrics, to boost customer satisfaction.
With intelligent authentication methods, companies can bypass traditional processes, like sending text verification codes to consumers or asking for passwords. Instead, they leverage intelligent algorithms to measure everything from how consumers connect with a contact center to the biometric elements in their voice. These authentication methods streamline experiences for agents and customers.
Plus, using artificial intelligence allows companies to implement dynamic, ever-evolving security strategies. Algorithms can learn how to identify consumers more accurately over time and become more effective at detecting suspicious activity. As fraudsters evolve, companies can grow alongside them, using ever-more sophisticated tools.
The Evolution of Contact Center Authentication
In the past, contact center authentication used to be relatively straightforward. When callers contacted a company, they were asked to give a password, answer a security question, or complete an activity. In some cases, companies even automatically “validated” specific devices (like smartphones) for each customer, reducing the need for additional access controls.
However, these methods have grown less effective over the years. According to a report from Nuance, 40% of customers can’t remember their answers to security questions. Additionally, 20% say they were victims of fraud after their phone number was stolen or cloned.
These problems have prompted business leaders in the contact center to turn to AI and more intuitive tools for caller authentication. Just as identity and access management tools for employees in the contact center have become more advanced, with zero-trust controls and biometrics, caller authentication is moving in the same direction.
Some of the significant technologies and concepts driving the evolution of intelligent authentication today include:
The Rise of Intelligent Adaptive Authentication
Traditional IVR systems and authentication strategies often used basic methods to validate a caller or contact whoever they claimed to be. Unfortunately, fraudsters have learned how to exploit these systems. They can steal or buy data from the dark web to bypass security questions, hack accounts from approved devices, and more.
Intelligent adaptive authentication methods are now emerging to eliminate these issues with more robust, dynamic security standards. Typically, these tools leverage various forms of data, such as passwords and usernames, one-time passwords, and biometrics, all at the same time.
Unlike standard multi-factor authentication solutions, however, intelligent adaptive solutions take advantage of AI. They can assess the threat or risk factors surrounding each account profile and determine the number of steps necessary to secure a conversation.
For instance, if a solution detects an authenticated device that has previously been jailbroken, it would reject device authentication as a core security method and assign a higher risk score to the account. The same tools can proactively update and manage risk scores throughout a customer’s lifecycle.
Biometrics in the Authentication Landscape
Biometrics isn’t just a component of intelligent adaptive authentication. It’s also valuable for various forms of intelligent security. Gartner even defined voice biometrics as one of the most effective intelligent authentication methods in the modern market in terms of strength and accuracy.
Voice biometrics, built into a contact center IVR system or workflow, allow companies to validate customers based on unique components in their voice. These AI-driven tools examine everything from speech style to cadence to create a unique “voiceprint” for each customer.
This means instead of having to answer a question or give a password when they call a customer service team; customers can just say a specific phrase. The AI technology then compares that phrase to the data in the customer’s profile.
Although generative AI tools and innovative technologies are introducing new ways for criminals to try and replicate voiceprints, these solutions are still highly secure. They can also be combined with other authentication methods, such as multi-factor authentication, to protect customers further.
Multi-Level Risk Management Tools
Some companies, like Nuance, invest in comprehensive fraud and risk management tools, which address many aspects of contact center security. They can help organizations rapidly detect threat vectors in their ecosystem and detect potential risks in real-time. Plus, these AI-driven tools reduce friction for agents and customers alike.
Using real-time analytical engines, these toolkits can use various factors to authenticate legitimate callers in seconds before they reach the IVR or the contact center agent. Like adaptive intelligent authentication tools, they can also evolve and improve over time with machine learning.
Some companies can use the same fraud and risk management tools to secure their workforce by implementing more robust access controls for employees and improving customer security. Moreover, because these tools can integrate with contact centers, CRMs, and other databases, they can leverage higher volumes of data for security and validation purposes.
The Benefits of Intelligent Authentication
Intelligent authentication is a crucial component of an excellent customer experience in the contact center. Customers expect a lot more from the businesses they work with today. They don’t just want interactions to be streamlined and convenient. They also expect organizations to keep their information secure across all platforms.
Intelligent authentication methods provide customers with greater peace of mind. However, they also streamline the customer journey and reduce customer effort scores. The right strategy can minimize the work customers need to do to access accounts and speak to agents.
At the same time, agents benefit from a more efficient contact center workflow. Just as customers hate answering repetitive knowledge-based questions, agents waste much time and energy on old-fashioned authentication methods.
With intelligent authentication, companies can ensure legitimate customers can access the service they need faster while bad actors are instantly identified and blocked. Operational costs are reduced due to lower average handling times and shorter customer/agent conversations.
Biometric authentication and AI-driven authentication tools can even help companies deliver more personalized customer experiences. Once a system identifies a customer as who they say they are, they can automatically surface profile information about each client, helping agents to customize the service journey to their specific needs.
Securing the Contact Center with Intelligent Authentication
Ultimately, robust and intelligent authentication methods are necessary for the modern contact center. Traditional token and knowledge-based authentication methods are becoming less reliable, and businesses must adapt to stay ahead.
Investing in the next generation of authentication technologies allows companies to improve compliance, security, and privacy standards. Plus, the right tools can help businesses to enhance customer experiences, increase agent productivity, and reduce operational costs.
The age of intelligent authentication has officially arrived. It’s paving the way to a future where contact centers can defend against caller fraud more effectively.
