Adding an intelligent voice analysis layer to everyday calls and conversations can dramatically improve hiring processes, fraud detection and customer experience, and reduce operational risk.
This is according to Leon Towsen, XTND Executive for Cyber Security and Digital Solutions at iOCO, who says advanced technology to measure vocal physiology and emotional signals can turn everyday conversations into actionable data.
Towsen says: “Voice remains underutilised as a source of business data. But understanding people’s emotions and adding that data to decision-making processes can give businesses a competitive advantage. For example, in a call centre environment, we can use voice analysis to measure the emotional state of both the customer and the agent as they are speaking. This allows agents to defuse rising tension or identify the right time to close a deal. It can be used for quality assurance and training.”
iOCO is an authorised reseller and user of AuthentIQ, layered voice analysis (LVA) technology first designed for use as an investigation tool in the 1990s and developed over time to become an advanced voice analysis solution to support use cases like risk detection, asset protection and employee well-being.
Towsen explains that AuthentIQ can integrate into existing telephony systems, providing a small visualiser on the agent's screen of the client's emotions as the client speaks. This allows the agent to immediately see if there is uneasiness, stress or overthinking occurring in the conversation.
“It's not analysing the words, it analyses how the person says them,” he says.
It also analyses the agent’s emotions, helping them to offer better service.
“We've seen it enhancing the emotional experience of the customer. Customers walk away from the call feeling they were made welcome, the agent listened to them, they were empathetic or not over-assertive in the sense that they just pushed for a sale, because the agent was able to better manage themselves emotionally.”
Enhancing recruitment and HR
Towsen says AuthentIQ LVA has proven valuable for wellness checks in remote and dispersed workforces and also supports job candidate screening.
He cites examples of contact centres that are challenged by high absenteeism and staff turnover rates. “We tested a control group with AuthentIQ against a group that was tested on the normal procedure. After six months, there was a 50% reduction of absenteeism and 40% better retention of the group that came through with AuthentIQ, which means better productivity and better service for their customers,” he says.
“The voice analysis identifies dishonest applicants, or those who are taking a chance because they are desperate for a job. It won't necessarily disqualify them, but we then advise our clients to proceed with a detailed inquiry to learn what their intent is.”
Flagging risk
Voice analysis also helps reduce risk – for example, highlighting potential deception among cash-in-transit employees or flagging possible fraud in insurance claims.
Towsen says: “We find with insurance claims, out of every 10 that we test, on average, 2.5 have potential fraud or dishonesty associated with them. AuthentIQ helps insurers improve risk segmentation and allocate investigative resources to the right areas. This also means they can improve claim turnaround times and customer satisfaction.”
He emphasises that AuthentIQ is not a lie detector: “There is no such thing as an infallible lie detector, which is why such technologies are not admissible as court evidence. AuthentIQ is a tool to indicate anomalies in responses to a specific question or situation, offering indicators to prompt follow-up. It’s not just for use in calls – customers can also use it like a polygraph where the risk manager can sit down with his laptop in a room with a person who is being questioned.
“It's an end-to-end intelligence layer, and iOCO brings the knowledge and the skills to help customers implement it. It is integrated using an API, or we can create a customer’s own instance in the AWS cloud. The application is extremely user-friendly, so customers can self-service or we can provide them with a managed service,” Towsen concludes.
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