TELUS International reports fourth quarter and full-year 2023 results, delivering solid revenue growth, with resilient profitability and cash flow; provides outlook for 2024

Vancouver, Canada – TELUS International (NYSE and TSX: TIXT), a leading digital customer experience innovator that designs, builds, and delivers next-generation solutions, including AI and content moderation, for global and disruptive brands, today released its results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2023. TELUS Corporation (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is the controlling shareholder of TELUS International. All figures in this news release, and elsewhere in TELUS International disclosures, are in U.S. dollars, unless specified otherwise, and relate only to TELUS International results and measures.

“At the close of 2023, our management team at TELUS International reflected on a challenging year across our industry and the impact it had on our long-term track record of consistently delivering on expectations. Whilst we took meaningful action to improve performance and our results in the second half of the year started to show signs of stabilization, with significantly improved profitability, our industry is not yet back to a normal operating rhythm, as macroeconomic uncertainty remains and our clients proceed cautiously,” said Jeff Puritt, President and CEO of TELUS International. “In addition to streamlining our operations to match near-term client demand and improving efficiencies at all levels of our company, we’ve also made further progress with the integration of WillowTree and our Digital Solutions services to ensure TELUS International is well positioned to combine our scaled design and build capabilities along with our technology-led operations and managed services across all of our service lines, going to market as an AI-fueled customer experience partner of choice.”

Jeff continued, “In the fourth quarter, our global sales team won new business with a North American customer engagement software and analytics company, Western Canada's premier heavy-duty truck and bus dealership, and a German research institution focused on innovative visual systems, to name a few. We continued to broaden relationships with our existing clients, such as Google, driven by AI-related momentum, and a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation. Our parent company and anchor client TELUS Corporation remains a unique long-term tailwind for our business, as demonstrated in 2023 through expanded project mandates, including with TELUS’ Health business unit, which continued to ramp in the fourth quarter.”

Jeff added, “Illuminating our commitment to create value through technology to delight customers with exceptional experiences, in the fourth quarter, TELUS International was recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape, Worldwide Data Labeling Software 2023 Vendor Assessment, on the merits of our data labeling software technologies and capabilities. Additionally, in their recent industry report, the IDC featured TELUS International’s Fuel iX solution, and specifically our GenAI Jumpstart eight-week accelerator program, among the examples of successful implementation of generative AI in customer care business process services. In another accolade, Five9, the partner we chose for our intelligent, cloud-native Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) application platform, recognized TELUS International as the Canadian Partner of the Year and the Global Partner of the Year in 2023, as we work together to reimagine customer experience in the cloud, with agile and scalable solutions like Fuel iX that harness the power of generative AI to deliver end-to-end CX and innovation, while driving better performance and cost efficiencies for our clients.”

Vanessa Kanu, CFO said, “In the fourth quarter of 2023, TELUS International delivered solid revenue growth amidst a challenging operating environment, aided by the continued momentum we are seeing in AI Data Solutions as well as expanded mandates with TELUS Corporation. Importantly, we also exited 2023 with a meaningful improvement in our profitability, driven by our cost efficiency efforts that allowed us to deliver on our commitment to bring margins back to the prior levels we have grown accustomed to.”

Vanessa continued: “In setting our outlook for 2024, we remain conscious of the prolonged decision-making cycles we are seeing from both existing and new clients. Our current view of client demand assumes a continuation of the industry-wide challenging business climate for roughly the first half of the year, while we are hopeful to start seeing broader demand recovery in the latter half of 2024.”

Vanessa concluded, “TELUS International’s balance sheet remains solid, with the business demonstrating its ongoing ability to generate meaningful cash flow that we have used to lower our debt levels, resulting in a further improved leverage position. Our capital allocation priorities remain focused on enabling long-term growth by also reinvesting into our business, through technology and innovation, which we believe will support our long-term success. Meaningful growth opportunities for our business over the long term continue to support our conviction in the strong investment thesis around TELUS International, driven by digital transformation, differentiated premium CX offerings, digital trust & safety, all underpinned by agile and scalable AI capabilities.”

Complete version of the Earnings Release is available at the link below.