How Voice is Transforming FinTech

Credit cards and fintech aren't exactly the first things that come to mind when we think of voice technology. But the evolution of voice tech hasn't gone unnoticed to folks at Visa. They see AI-powered voice tech as the next big driver for innovation in the payment processing space.

Patrick Flanagan, senior director, Global Product Innovation and Design at Visa will join us today, June 16, at VOICE Global 2021 to discuss how Visa is integrating AI, biometrics, and voice tech into the fintech industry. Patrick will also provide insights into some of the areas Visa is concentrating its efforts.

Better interactions

Visa's use of AI-powered voice technology focuses on user identification for customer service, order-taking, and, of course, to enable payments. In all of these scenarios, identifying the customer is critical. Visa sees vocal assistants as providing better identification in a less intrusive manner than the traditional questions and answers paradigm.

"I certainly see a day where you'll invite a conversational assistant, as a third party, to the conversation. And to allow it to capture biometric data and sensitive information for verification," says Patrick. "This takes the load off the customer service agent who's attempting to maintain a relationship and create a positive call experience as opposed to collecting the nuts and bolts."

Humans at the center of it all

A prime example of using voice technology for fulfilling customer orders and payments is the quick-serve restaurant drive-through. But instead of taking the all-in approach of letting the voice assistant handle every situation, Visa is inclined to keep humans in the equation. According to Patrick, "A big example would be to use voice tech to place the order. But there's another human on the line, just in case the exchange goes awry, or the customer has any questions.”

And Visa's approach is holistic insofar as it uses other technologies to augment the experience. "So we implement it there to do order-taking, and then maybe do a cursory glance at verification. Do we think we know who this person is? Or can we at least pick them out from a number of people and then use another technology like facial recognition, a fingerprint, or a palm scan to be able to take that next step and enable payment?"

Voice is undoubtedly a driving force in both Visa's future and the payment processing space. Visa's comprehensive approach demonstrates that we can enhance voice tech's practical applications by integrating it with other technology and still remain human-centric.

Tune in to VOICE Global today to hear how voice-enabled technology is impacting our lives from smart homes, to accessibility to fintech to retail and restaurants. Check the speaker lineup and join us for these and other engaging speakers across a variety of industries.