What is the future of biometric authentication in payments?

Biometric authentication once felt like a glimpse into a bigger, brighter future.

What is the future of biometric authentication

Retinal scanning, for example, would often appear in science fiction films like Demolition Man, used to portray the technological advancement of the years ahead – writes Roy Aston, Chief Operating Officer at Paysafe.

Fast forward to 2023 and consumers are accustomed to biometric authentication, with facial, thumbprint, voice and more used as identifiers to access devices we enjoy throughout our daily lives. What was once a flight of fancy has now become the mundane.

This, however, doesn’t mean the bright future of biometric authentication has already come and gone. In payments, biometric authentication is still evolving at a rapid clip, with promise of improved security, convenience and a friction-free experience.

Here’s what the future of biometric authentication in payments could look like.

Current state of play

Consumer expectations around the payment process have changed. Whereas security may once have been the top priority, and convenience a close second, consumers now expect a perfect marriage of the two.

According to our recent Lost in Transaction research, which surveyed 14,500 consumers in North America, Europe, the UK, and Latin America, 69% of respondents expect a frictionless checkout, while 64% of those who shop online say security is the most important factor when choosing how to pay.

For businesses, the pressure is on to improve security, increase trust and de-risk fraud. Failure to do so can be massively costly.

But it’s equally important to meet consumer expectations around reduced friction. For example, while two-factor authentication has a role to play in payments, it can get in the way for consumers, prompting them to abandon a purchase.

Biometrics, on the other hand, can help deliver a seamless, secure payment experience for consumers. So what’s driving its development?

The drivers of biometrics advancement

Several factors are contributing to the evolution of biometric authorisation, including all-time high mobile adoption, blossoming tech like 5G, which offers greater bandwidth for consumers and businesses, and increasingly sophisticated AI.

As for what lies ahead, biometrics is unlikely to see a huge hardware sea change that delineates the past from the future. Instead, advancement will be driven by incremental changes, from greater usage, to continued technological improvements.

These will all start to come together and drive advancements in biometrics, and as a result, greater adoption. But what exactly does the future of biometrics look like?

A look to the future of biometric authentication

As with all tech trends, the changes in biometrics have started small – from fingerprints, to voice recognition and face ID.

However, as consumers put more information into their devices – including health data like blood pressure – multi-factor authentication (MFA) patterns that are unique to individuals will only improve.

Now businesses are racing to drive these improvements to overcome emerging security threats, which have been enhanced by new technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can now impersonate peoples’ faces and voices, for example, which could start to beat early biometrics.

This means that businesses will need to bring different biometric patterns together to provide the level of security required to avoid fraud, and to offer consumers the most secure, trustworthy payment experience possible.

How can biometrics usage be encouraged

All consumers want their assets to be handled by trustworthy companies. You wouldn’t put your salary in a bank that didn’t have tight security, for example.

To drive consumer adoption of biometrics and reach its full potential, businesses must push security and trust as part of their brand values.

By being explicit that data security and privacy are a part of their DNA, and clearly explaining why these things are important, businesses can build trust with consumers, who’ll take comfort data won’t be shared with other parties.

There’s a balance to be struck, however, between education and stoking fear. Average users of financial services are just people buying through retailers – they won’t necessarily know about the challenges around fraud in the world of AI.

This is why it’s important for businesses to be open and informative around the fact these threats exist, but without sensationalising them.

With a greater understanding of the threat landscape, usage of new types of biometric authentication should increase, as consumers seek to embrace more robust security measures.

A brighter future

As for what this means for consumers, the benefits are indirect but notable. Globally, companies lose billions each year due to fraud. This eats into profitability which is passed onto customers with higher-priced solutions and products.

With biometrics that can counter these issues and prevent fraud, businesses can improve profitability, and lower-priced, higher-quality products can be offered to consumers.

For biometrics, and the consumers and businesses who adopt them, a bright future is secured.