Delta Lloyd is starting a pilot with voice analysis to detect fraud at insurance claims. Innovative software is able to measure the emotion in a customer’s voice. Based on this, the claim handler can make an objective assessment of the validity of certain statements and he or she can then ask specific follow-up questions.
Voice Stress Analysis
Delta Lloyd’s pilot with the new fraud detection tool raises questions among experts. Ewout Meijer is academic lecturer and researcher at the department of Forensic Psychology at the University of Maastricht and spends most of his time on deception detection. He believes it is “particularly unwise” of Delta Lloyd to start with voice analysis. “If you ask me, they have been seduced by smooth sales people. Research has been done into the device they are going to use and you can just as well flip a coin.”
Technology
FRISS CEO Jeroen Morrenhof recognizes the controversy but puts the developments in a bigger picture: “you should always use it in close cooperation with other tools”. He points at image screening, a technology able to determine whether a photo has been manipulated, as a tool that may well complement voice stress analysis. Morrenhof sees the pilot at Delta Lloyd as progressive and a step forward in fighting insurance fraud: “Image: you are doubting the authenticity of a photo because you have clues it may be fraudulent, then you can very well use voice analysis in a scripted conversation to search for the weaknesses in a story. This means it will not be a ‘fishing expedition’ but it will be targeted at concrete leads.”
Full article available here (in Dutch).
