GBS WORLD NEWS | WEEK 4 | JUNE 2024
Global customer management institute, ICMI, has announced its Contact Center Expo 2024 is scheduled for October 21–24 in Orlando, Florida. The event aims to unite industry professionals to explore pivotal trends and challenges. The conference program focuses on enhancing customer service operations through AI adoption, agent experience enhancement, and strategic leadership development. The event also offers site tours of innovative contact centers and pre-conference training in management, strategy, metrics, AI, and supervisor fundamentals.
In the Philippines’ Cebu City, the 2024 Kalayaan Job Fair was organized by the Department of Labor and Employment. The event created opportunities for Central Visayas job seekers, with a total of 241 individuals being hired on the spot across Cebu City, Trinidad, Bohol, and Dumaguete City. The fair, held nationwide in celebration of Philippine Independence Day, featured vacancies mainly in BPOs, hotels, hardware stores, and retail shops.
Global communications platform, Zoom, has released it latest tech enhancements for its contact center, including 30 new features and enhancements aimed at transforming customer and agent experiences. Key updates include advanced capabilities like Next Best Action for real-time agent guidance, AI-driven knowledge base article sharing, and automatic message translation for multilingual support. Additionally, Zoom now supports SMS functionality in the UK and Ireland, along with comprehensive SMS activity tracking for omnichannel engagements.
The broadband connectivity company, Charter Communications, announced it is closing its call center in Ontario, resulting in 452 job losses by mid-August. The closure, confirmed in documents submitted to the state, affects roles predominantly in customer service along with other functions like facilities and human resources. Charter did not specify reasons for the closure but mentioned transitioning operations to other U.S.-based centers.
Also in redundancies, Firstsource, a global call center company, is considering redundancies affecting over 60 jobs in Northern Ireland, primarily in Londonderry, where it employs over 250 people. The potential job cuts are linked to its client, NOW Broadband, part of the Sky group, which is reassessing its partnership. Firstsource stated it is initiating consultations and supporting affected staff.
Decagon AI Inc., a California-based startup specializing in generative AI for customer support, has secured US$35 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel, with participation from notable angel investors like Aaron Levie and Howie Liu. Decagon aims to revolutionize AI-powered customer service by creating chatbots that simulate human-like interactions and perform complex tasks beyond basic queries. The funds will fuel further development of its AI platform and expand its impact across more enterprises.
