Financial services leading on “Voice First” technology strategy, but there is work to be done
Today, voice is a critical data set for the digital transformation of the enterprise. It holds much more value than any other means of communication because it conveys context, sentiment, intent, emotion and actions, providing real intelligence and driving valuable business outcomes.
Voice conveys “context, sentiment, intent, emotion and actions”
Research* shows that a majority (83%) of CIOs and IT functions in the financial services sector believe that a “Voice First” strategy will be in place within five years, showing a clear shift towards recognising the value of the spoken word.
The reality today in this industry is that, on average, just over half (58%) of organisation-wide conversations are being captured, suggesting limitations with current call recording solutions and set up.
Furthermore, 86% of organisations in the financial sector stated that an open API approach is pivotal to their voice strategies enabling them to feed voice data into tools and applications of their choice (such as CRM, compliance, business intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics tools, or even custom-built applications) and crucially not tying them to one provider.
Yet only 10% of those surveyed say their voice data is easily accessible for fuelling AI engines and analytics, so data sovereignty also appears to be an issue.
The financial services industry is one of those leading the charge with regards to technological know-how. However, this industry, often at the forefront of embracing technological change, still has a long way to go regarding its use of voice data.
For example, despite customer experience being identified as the top AI use case to be enhanced by voice data, 35% admit they are not using AI for customer services at all.
This figure is surprisingly high, given that organisations are trying to ensure they are doing what they can in a competitive market still marred by bad PR in a hangover from the financial crisis of 2007.
In addition, as an industry, increasing legislation and demands for compliance have driven a necessity to be as technologically savvy as possible. Various legislation was introduced into the financial services sector in 2018, including MiFID II and GDPR, which sees financial firms having to record all interactions with customers. Yet nearly half (47%) cite they are currently unprepared for future legislation, despite having a host of technological tools to help them.
The idea of a ‘Voice First’ enterprise is clearly in the line of sight of the majority of CIOs in the near future, yet few of those that already capture voice data are exploiting its full potential. There is an opportunity to derive real competitive advantage by turning voice data into knowledge to serve customers in the most personalised way.
By Richard Stevenson, CEO, Red Box
————–
*Survey conducted by Sapio Research for Red Box, asking 588 IT directors or C-level executives responsible for IT across UK, US and Singapore.
