If you're operating or managing a contact center, it's time to get an education on how deepfakes work, what threats they pose, and what you can do now to shield your customers, your agents, and your business.
What Are Deepfakes and Why Are They Dangerous?
In a nutshell, deepfakes are media files, primarily audio or video, produced through artificial intelligence to impersonate actual individuals. Through voice synthesis technology and deep learning, attackers can imitate the voice of a CEO, a client, or even a support representative. It requires just a few seconds of recorded speech, which is now more convenient than ever to acquire due to voicemail, social media platforms, podcasts, and public webinars.
Although video deepfakes tend to draw more public notice, voice deepfakes are most pressing for contact centers. AI-rendered voice clips are already realistic enough to deceive human agents and some voice authentication applications.
And the technology is no longer limited to sophisticated cybercrooks. Voice cloning applications for free, or nearly so, can be easily found online, requiring as few as a handful of voice samples to create a very realistic imitation sound. This acceleration in availability has decreased the threshold to entry for scammers and increased the risk to customer-facing businesses.
The Increased Adoption of Voice in Contact Centers
To get a handle on the size of the risk, it is helpful to consider the role of voice in modern contact centers. Industry-wide, voice is still the preeminent means of communication. Salesforce's 2024 Contact Center Trends Report indicates that over 67% of all customer service interactions still occur over voice.
Concurrently, voice authentication via biometrics is gaining traction. Banking institutions, telecommunication companies, and health information systems have ramped up the use of voiceprints to authenticate customers, with MarketsandMarkets.com estimating the voice biometrics market will expand from $2.2 billion in 2023 to $5.4 billion by 2027.
This mass adoption of voice verification, convenient as it is, also makes possible a new threat, in that if a threat actor can create a decent voice clone, they might be able to get around identity validation entirely, particularly in systems without contextual or multi-factor authentication.
Why Contact Centers Need to Care
You may ask yourself what the real danger is here. It is multifaceted, but very real.
1. Identity Theft and Illegal Access
Impersonation is one of the most popular applications of deepfakes within the contact center space. A scammer can replicate a customer's voice and call posing as someone who has lost access to an account. Without sophisticated verification, a contact center representative might unknowingly reset a password, change a phone number, or even authorize a wire transfer.
In 2023 alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) identified more than 1.1 million identity theft cases in the United States. Although not all deepfake-related, the sudden growth of AI-based fraud tools is putting pressure on regulations and internal security audits in B2C contact centers.
2. Internal Social Engineering Threats
In addition to posing as customers, attackers can also attack contact center agents with simulated audio from executives or department managers. Suppose a support agent is called by someone who sounds like their director, telling them to urgently gain access to sensitive information or customer data. In high-pressure situations like this one, such deception is not just credible, it works.
The FBI has cautioned that voice impersonation business attacks are increasing, usually associated with sophisticated phishing or business email compromise (BEC) campaigns. In 2024, some Fortune 500 organizations reported test cases in which audio was generated through AI to impersonate CFOs during internal security audits.
3. Brand Trust and Compliance Standing Damage
With customer loyalty won with great effort and lost just as quickly, trust is at the heart of everything. If customers find out your contact center was breached by a deepfake attack, the damage to your reputation could be disastrous. Moreover, not detecting and preventing deepfake fraud can expose your business to regulatory compliance failures such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, or GDPR, depending on your sector.
That is, this is not only a cybersecurity matter, but it's a compliance, brand, and business continuity matter.
Real-World Deepfake Scenarios in Contact Centers
Now, let's see how deepfakes could appear in your contact center ecosystem. A scammer acquires voicemail sound bytes from a banking customer and uses AI technology to impersonate their voice. They contact the bank's support line, go through simple identity verification, and ask for a transfer of funds. It sounds genuine to the agent because the voice is almost a perfect duplication.
In a different scenario, a call comes in to a telecom agent from an individual posing as his department manager. The would-be manager orders the agent to bypass an account lock for an alleged "VIP customer emergency." Short of time and unaware of the ruse, the agent does as he is told, allowing entry to a perpetrator.
These aren’t hypotheticals anymore. In a 2023 report by Symantec, over 70% of cybersecurity leaders said they believe AI-generated fraud, including voice deepfakes, will become a mainstream attack vector within two years. That prediction is proving accurate in 2025.
How Contact Centers Can Defend Against Deepfakes
The good news? You’re not helpless. While deepfakes are a rising threat, there are immediate steps your contact center can take to reduce risk.
1. Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Above all, never depend on voice verification alone. MFA must be the norm for all high-risk interactions. Combine voice verification with SMS codes, security questions, or biometric authentication. Contemporary CCaaS platforms now enable layered authentication logic, which makes it more difficult for fraudsters to penetrate via one method.
2. Educate Agents to Identify Red Flags
Human agents are still the most important defense level. Train them to identify unusual pauses, abnormal speech patterns, or phone calls that sound too scripted. Train agents to slow down the interaction that feels out of place and to escalate to the supervisor when necessary.
Fostering a "pause and check" culture can be the difference between an intercepted attack and a security incident.
3. Use Deepfake Detection Tools
Several AI and cybersecurity vendors now offer real-time audio analysis tools that can detect subtle anomalies in voice patterns, pitch shifts, and waveform inconsistencies. These tools are not foolproof but serve as valuable guardrails, especially when integrated into existing contact center platforms.
Companies like Pindrop and Resemble AI are leading in this space, and their APIs can plug into most modern CX tech stacks.
4. Strengthen Internal Access Controls
Finally, avoid internal abuse by restricting access to voice data. Not every agent must process sensitive authentication or payments. Implement role-based access controls and observe internal interactions using real-time logging. In that way, even when a malicious person tries to upload or fake audio, your systems detect the activity before it turns into a breach.
Why Now Is the Time to Act
Waiting for your contact center to become the target of a deepfake assault is not a plan; it's a risk. By 2025, the application of generative AI to fraud will not only be more prevalent but also more persuasive than ever. And as your contact center serves as the front line of customer interaction as well as digital defense, it's no longer sufficient to optimize for resolution and speed. You must also optimize for trust.
That requires preparing agents. That requires investment in more intelligent authentication. And most importantly, it means keeping ahead of the technology that fraudsters are presently exploiting. Because in this new environment, the caller on the other end of the phone might sound familiar, but that does not make it genuine.
FAQs
FAQ 1: How serious is the risk of voice deepfakes for modern contact centers?
Extremely serious. In 2025, voice deepfakes have evolved into a low-cost, high-impact tool for attackers. With free or inexpensive AI-based voice cloning tools readily available, it only takes seconds of recorded audio to impersonate a customer or executive convincingly. Contact centers—especially those handling financial transactions, account access, or sensitive data—are prime targets because they rely heavily on voice communication. Without layered defenses, the risk of successful impersonation, data theft, and fraud is real and immediate.
FAQ 2: Are current voice biometric authentication systems vulnerable to deepfakes?
Yes, many of them are. While traditional voice biometrics were once considered strong security measures, AI-generated voice clones can now mimic pitch, cadence, and speaking patterns well enough to bypass some biometric systems. This is particularly true in contact centers that use static voice authentication without additional layers of verification. To mitigate this, organizations are increasingly adopting context-aware and multi-factor authentication (MFA) strategies to enhance security beyond voice recognition alone.
FAQ 3: Can CCaaS platforms help detect or prevent deepfake attacks?
Absolutely. Leading CCaaS platforms in 2025 are starting to integrate AI-based anomaly detection, real-time voice pattern analysis, and customizable authentication workflows. Some platforms now offer plug-in support for third-party deepfake detection tools, such as those from Pindrop or Resemble AI. Additionally, CCaaS environments that support dynamic call routing, role-based access controls, and audit trails make it easier to contain threats and escalate suspicious interactions quickly.
FAQ 4: What kind of agent training is most effective against deepfake social engineering?
The most effective training focuses on situational awareness and behavioral red flags rather than just technical knowledge. Agents should be trained to recognize speech anomalies (e.g., unnatural pauses, overly scripted dialogue), emotional manipulation tactics (e.g., urgency or name-dropping), and suspicious requests that bypass standard protocols. Contact centers should also reinforce a "pause and verify" culture, where agents are empowered and expected to escalate any high-risk interaction that seems unusual, even if the voice sounds authoritative or familiar.
FAQ 5: What regulations should contact centers consider when protecting against deepfakes?
In addition to industry-specific standards like PCI-DSS (for payments), HIPAA (for health data), or GLBA (for financial services), organizations must also consider global privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA. These frameworks increasingly require proactive risk management against digital fraud and unauthorized access. A deepfake-related breach that leads to data exposure or compromised authentication could result in not only customer trust erosion but also hefty fines and compliance penalties. Investing in voice security isn’t just smart—it’s legally prudent.
