PwC UK partners with Clearspeed to combat fraud

PwC UK has announced a new partnership with Clearspeed, a leading provider of voice analytics technology for accurate and automated risk assessment at scale. The alliance will give the firm’s clients the “opportunity to enhance the experience of their customers” by speeding up their claim, application or process, while managing fraud risk across their operations. PwC said the alliance is part of its ongoing commitment to “make optimal use of innovative new technologies to tackle the most important business and societal challenges”, fraud being a major one. Clearspeed’s voice-based technology provides a “highly accurate and unbiased” assessment of risk. By asking a set of simple questions, Clearspeed’s AI-enabled platform identifies vocal characteristics in the answers that are associated with risk on a real time basis. By working with Clearspeed, PwC said it will help empower organisations dealing with high volumes of customer interactions where there may be fraud exposure to successfully process a significantly higher proportion of cases more quickly and without any further human intervention. Harry Holdstock, partner at PwC UK, said: “Fraud is increasingly a major concern across all parts of the economy and society, and now accounts for over 40% of all reported crimes in the UK. We were pleased to see the recent launch of the UK Government’s new Fraud Strategy, which places a renewed focus on tackling scams and bringing fraudsters to justice and commits to investing in the launch of a National Fraud Squad. “In this context, finding and deploying new methods and approaches to stopping fraud while continuing to meet the service expectations of customers is essential. I’m really excited we will be working with Clearspeed as we seek to help our clients enhance the experience of their customers and up the ante in the fight against fraud.” Alex Martin, Clearspeed CEO, added: "We are really enthusiastic about our alliance with PwC UK and its potential to address issues of fraud across multiple industries – insurance, financial services, government, immigration, sports integrity. With the rising cost of living and the digital transformation of the economy, fraud rates have increased and approaches have evolved, presenting a difficult challenge to traditional technologies for fraud detection. “By leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and next-gen voice analytics, we will revolutionise risk assessment together, empowering businesses to stay ahead of emerging threats and safeguard their operations and their customers, building trust faster in an increasingly complex landscape."