Nuance Communications, Inc., of Burlington, Mass., announced that ING Netherlands will use Nuance’s voice and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to power “Inge,” the new voice feature of ING Netherlands’ mobile banking app.
(Anyone who has seen the set-in-the-near-future movie, “Her,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and the voice of Scarlett Johansen, will recall that it portrayed the romance between a man and the voice of the operating system inside his smartphone.)
Using Inge, ING customers will be able to speak via a “human-like conversational interface” to control the mobile banking app. ING Netherlands is the first bank to offer such a voice-controlled mobile app in Europe, with a release this month.
Inge uses the capabilities in Nuance Nina, a platform that enables intelligent natural language understanding (NLU) and text-to-speech interfaces for mobile apps. ING Netherlands mobile customers will be able to check their balance or enter an account number by voice instead of tapping through multiple menus and screens.
Following the initial release, ING will update the app to also include Nuance voice biometrics to allow users to securely access the app through the unique sound of their voice. Nuance secure voice biometrics technologies replace PINs, making the mobile banking experience completely hands-free.
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