The European companies are going to invest in 2022 3,300 million dollars in biometric systems, an amount that is 20% higher than what they invested last year. Furthermore, investment in this type of system will not stop growing until 2026, the year in which European companies will spend 6,100 million dollars on them, which means that in the period between 2021 and 2026, growth Biometric spending in the enterprise sector in Europe will rise, on average, 18% each year, according to IDC.
These investments will be driven in 2023 by the need companies already have to improve their employee experiences. Also to integrate innovation at work. many European companies will use technologies such as facial, fingerprint, or voice recognition; very popular as identification systems.
But for now only a limited number of European companies will use other technologies, such as gait analysis, pulsation dynamics, hand geometry or eye or iris scanning. For now, this type of biometric solutions is still limited to specific situations.
Although biometric solutions face many problems, including privacy and security, as well as bias, 59% of European companies will use some type of biometric solution in 2023. Companies in Europe use this technology to strengthen security, but also for automated employee management. Among the most popular use cases for biometric systems are facility access control, employee identification for data access, and worker time and attendance management.
Finance-related areas are most likely to be adopted in the future, with the majority of investments being made to address cybersecurity, physical security, and regulatory compliance.
Andrea Minonne, Research Manager and Leader of IDC’s Human Augmentation Research Grouphas underlined that «Workplaces are changing, and a focus on biometric solutions that drive innovation, employee experience and facility security will be key to ensuring European businesses run smoothly. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine have heightened security concerns and highlighted how biometrics can deliver extraordinary results, bringing positive impacts to business and society.«
