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Make the most of your conversational bot investment with our easy-to-follow guide featuring best practices that can be applied to your digital transformation journey.

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(Featured) 6-steps-for-Conversational-Bot-success-A-primer

Six steps for conversational bot success: A helpful primer for chatbot implementation

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In this IDC Info Snapshot, discover the benefits of engaging an experienced CX partner for content moderation to safeguard your online communities.

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Expanding content moderation capabilities helps fast-growing brands earn customer trust 

See why cloud technology, data protection, AI, interactive voice search and navigation and omnichannel experience are the top digital CX trends in 2023.

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digital trends 2023

The top digital customer experience trends in 2023

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TELUS International, in partnership with Statista, surveyed 250 enterprise leaders to explore where they plan to invest in digital customer experience (CX) technology in 2023. Uncover the results.

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Survey results: Digital customer experience priorities for leaders in 2023

Does your brand speak emoji? Discover why the analysis of emojis is crucial to understanding customer sentiment and improving the customer experience.

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Emojis sentiment analysis

Emoji analysis reveals new insights into customer sentiment

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Discover some of the top outsourcing destinations for consideration and the factors to keep in mind as you make your decision.

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Selecting the best outsourcing destination for your business

You've heard of product-market fit, but what about profit-market fit? Learn the difference and how scaling tech brands can achieve it.

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profit market fit

Why achieving profit-market fit is essential for scaling brands

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Learn about how we helped a consumer robotics company improve their digital customer experience with agent-facing automation.

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Deploying automation to assist agents at a consumer robotics company

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The future of content moderation: Strategies and tools for 2023 and beyond

Organizations have a responsibility to create and maintain digital experiences that are truthful, welcoming and safe. Learn how brands can keep pace with the growing levels of user-generated content (UGC) to build trust with their customers and protect their reputation.

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Discover what customer intelligence is, industry examples and best practices for implementing a customer intelligence strategy for your business.

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The ultimate guide to customer intelligence

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Delve into new insights about customer experience outsourcing from a survey of 712 enterprise executives with strategic decision-making authority.

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Executive survey results: CX outsourcing in 2023

Player support outsourcing isn't just for Triple-A studios. Learn about the benefits of outsourcing for growing games companies.

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What growing games companies can gain from player support outsourcing

Germany's diverse and talented workforce make the European nation an ideal CX outsourcing destination. Read up on all the benefits.

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Don't overlook Germany as a CX outsourcing destination

Alon Mor, Head of Global Customer Solutions at Wix.com, reveals how Wix uses data to enhance the overall customer experience and grow its user base.

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(Previously recorded as Voxpro - powered by TELUS International) How can a company successfully support 150 million customers worldwide? That’s what Alon Mor, Head of Global Customer Solutions at Wix.com, reveals in this episode. One of the world’s leading web development platforms, Wix looks for data in places that many other companies do not in order to enhance the overall customer experience and grow its user base.

In this podcast we talk about this, plus:

- The arduous journey to providing 24/7 support

- Convincing senior stakeholders to invest in CX

- Preparing for significant spikes in traffic

- The concept of ‘survivorship bias’ in customer experience

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Big Data Analytics

Using data to understand customers from Wix.com

Banking decision-makers are prioritizing investment in predictive analytics. Learn why the technology is generating interest.

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Appreciating the value of predictive analytics in banking

Robert Zirk: What comes to mind when you hear the word "panorama"?

You're watching a short video. It's a "panorama sourdough recipe," and you're a bit confused. I mean, this loaf doesn't look any wider than any other sourdough bread loaf you've seen.

You swipe up. But the next video doesn't sit right.

This person is spreading misinformation about the "panorama." And you've seen reliable sources debunk this, but the number of shares on this post is concerning. You report it.

The next video talks about working from home during the "panorama".

Or maybe it's the "panini". Or maybe it's the... "Backstreet Boys reunion tour"?

What they're really referencing is the COVID-19 pandemic.

These are examples of algospeak, an online extension of our continuously evolving language. And on today's episode of Questions for now, we'll ask: what is algospeak and how can brands keep up?

Welcome to Questions for now, a podcast from TELUS International where we ask today's big questions in digital customer experience. I'm Robert Zirk. Before we get into keeping up with algospeak, we need to define algospeak, and somewhat ironically...

Dr. Jamie Cohen: It's a fun word because it's actually algospeak. The word is a form of algospeak.

Robert Zirk: That's Dr. Jamie Cohen, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at CUNY Queens College, and his area of focus is on internet culture.

Dr. Jamie Cohen: Algospeak is shorthand for algorithmic speech, which is just to move around an automated algorithmic system. To put it in better terms is that we use an internet that's content moderated.

Though we think the internet is basically open and full of information, we're actually watching it through the filter of content moderators, which are sometimes human based and sometimes AI based.

Robert Zirk: And together they work in tandem to screen this content for anything inappropriate for a general audience.

AI does a lot of the heavy lifting in filtering out a lot of the clear terms of service violations. But when users use or change their language beyond the words that are in the dictionary, it can get a little tricky.

Dr. Jamie Cohen: So it ends up being not seen by the AI, or they end up finding some ways of changing some of the letters so it's invisible to the screen, or even scratching them out. But algospeak is one step further.

That is when the user starts adopting that fake language that they made to avoid the algorithm in verbal speech. So now they start saying the words that are made for the screen to avoid content moderation.

Robert Zirk: And while the word "algospeak" itself might be a relatively new term, this concept predates the internet. It's part of how we as humans communicate.

Dr. Jamie Cohen: A lot of the keywords or terms that we use are filtered through would be considered the Overton window. Like, what is acceptable speech? What can you say out loud? What words are okay where you don't get in trouble for them?

So people have figured out how to mismanage language. Mismanagement of language is part of the human condition. It's how we communicate. It's part of shorthand and making sure that the in-groups understand the information. Before the internet, we've always been using word replacement, or at least word collapsing, or a nicknaming that sticks.

One example that a linguist often gives is the term "hussy" comes from the word housewife. And so it's turned from something that was pretty standard into something derogatory over time. We don't actually know sometimes that these words have origins or etymologies that predate other terms that we aren't even used to, like P. T. Barnum, who's basically the guy who came up with modern forms of advertising, used such different language that we'll never use today.

But at the time, it was, like, the most important way that people interacted with content. And so, neologisms, meaning the invention of new words, is just very much part of how humans have created new ways of reflecting things that the public adopts to. Over the course of time, pre-internet, we've either tightened or loosened our language depending on what communities you're in.

And then post-internet, now we have machines that tighten or loosen the language we interact with.

Robert Zirk: So why do people use algospeak?

Siobhan Hanna: Culture, youth culture, trends, meme culture, and then in some instances, there are certain groups within culture that may be influencing language for less benign reasons.

Robert Zirk: That's Siobhan Hanna, managing director and vice president at TELUS International AI Data Solutions. It's the AI training data division of TELUS International, and Siobhan and her team work with brands to leverage AI in ways that create a safer internet for all.

Siobhan Hanna: So it could be hate speech, or political groups, or political cultures could be incubating their own algospeak. And then I think safety can drive the genesis of algospeak in some instances as well, because there may be the need to be evasive in communication and it can be designed to mask meaning.

Robert Zirk: So from a brand perspective, is algospeak a bad thing?

Siobhan Hanna: I certainly don't believe that algospeak is all bad, and of course I know you're asking rhetorically. I think it's relatively neutral.

There are instances where of course it's problematic, whether that is because it's offensive or could result in a safety, a harm issue. But I certainly think, actually, it can help to create affinity in some ways. It actually can help to reinforce safety in some ways. I just think it's organic, right? I think it's just part of how language has always evolved. This is just a different means of how that is happening.

Robert Zirk: And Dr. Jamie Cohen concurs that the measure of whether algospeak is a good or bad thing, depends entirely on how it's being used.

Dr. Jamie Cohen: I think algospeak is a very savvy way of interacting with this content. Trust and safety is a very important part of all social media platforms. And I think without that, safety is the biggest concern. Not just for people, but for brands. You don't want your advertisement showing up next to something that's wildly inappropriate. Even on the basis of like marginally inappropriate. When people come up with algospeak, they're actually figuring out ways to continue being expressive and using the platform in their style while simultaneously being aware that safety exists. So I think they work in tandem, but I think without algospeak, that actually the platform becomes stale. I think the update of language is actually pretty important to the update of internet culture, and internet culture moves way faster than standard culture so it's very interesting to watch that.

Using data to understand customers from Wix.com

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