Telus is using artificial intelligence to alter the accents of its call centre agents in real time through its subsidiary Telus Digital, and the backlash has been swift.
Labour advocates are calling the practice deceptive, and the federal government is being urged to require disclosure whenever the technology is used. Rogers and Bell, meanwhile, say they have no plans to follow suit.
A Globe and Mail report reveals that Telus is running offshore agents’ voices through speech-to-speech AI models that modify how they sound to Canadian customers. The software, built by a company called Tomato.ai, is designed to reduce what Telus describes as “accent-related friction.” The company says it also helps protect staff from harassment.
The tech was announced a year ago by Telus Digital, which noted the feature “enhances spoken communication in real time by softening accents and improving clarity, without altering the speaker’s voice identity.”
Union representatives aren’t buying it, as they say the tool is fundamentally deceptive and masks not just accents but the location and identity of the person on the other end of the line. The concern isn’t just about transparency with customers. Critics say it raises deeper questions about what it means to strip away a worker’s voice and replace it with something more palatable to a domestic audience.
Rogers and Bell have both confirmed to the Globe they will not use accent-modifying software, drawing a clear line between themselves and Telus on how AI should be used in customer service.
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So as I pick up the phone and they say Telus, down goes the phone and number blocked. Along with carpet cleaners & air vents cleaning.
I go out of my way to make the person angry. Get the little prick so worked up that they tell me to Fuck off. It’s amazing how Kevin loses his Texas accent when he gets mad.. It makes me happy because I know that I just threw some scammer of his game for the next two hours. Hopefully the next call is to some innocent old lady that might have fallen victim. But won’t because buddy is still so worked up from telling me to Fuck off.
These Indians deserve it, 1.5 billion in that nation and their still 3rd world and yet they try and make it look like their better then the West when I’m fact anyone with a working frontal cortex can see it’s not
Telus is a scam anyways like Rogers they outsourced years ago and yet have the most complaints as even their sub brands like Koodo or Public Mobile are affected
Well even more happy I switched providers. Bye bye Telus.
And if you switched to Rogers .. you went to a company which just openly closes departments in Canada and outsources but doesn’t pay for the anti accent ai haha same evil new corp
Let me be sure I got this right. Youre irked that with Telus, you’d be having a conversation in your native language, in a natural easy to understand tone as if having a conversation with your best friend Chris who you’ve known since you were three and you’re tickled pink that you’ve jumped ship to where you’ve got to stutter your way through a conversation with Sukhwinder who you struggle to understand as he sounds fresh off the boat, minus having ever gotten on the boat?
That sum it up correctly? Thats got something of a self harmer vibe to it is all I’m saying.
Would you by chance be willing to pay an added premium to have customer service agents speak in a randomized, never repeated foreign language you have zero grasp of, each time you reach out to them? You know, like a bit of pizzazz to keep customer service fresh?
No , it should not be people like to talk to people
Nothing hide the sound of an Indians, how about they stop outsourcing return the work to Canada or have any federal funding cut off as these corpo trash are worse then the MAGA poor/low income people
Stop outsourcing? These are the things that happen when employees collectively demand ridiculous wages, 18 weeks holidays per year, massages, medical and dental, and a partridge in a pear tree. Have a chat with unions about having their demands reflect the skill-less, unmotivated labour of their members and maybe the jobs can stick around. Look on the bright side. Less Canadians doing lazy valueless work.
You are a clown!!
Yeah, that may just be so. But I’m also correct. Can’t wait to hear you whine about the tripling of your phone bill when they reshore them jobs. That’ll be a solid dose of fun. Too stupid to understand why the jobs left in the first place, onwards to too daft to grasp cause and effect when they return.
Solid plan Ace.
What a coincidence. Look who’s having a whinge about it. The unions. Who’d have thought aside from those who can think?
“A whinge”??
You’re not even from Canada are you?
Boooooo Telus. This sounds so dystopian.
People sure are stupid. Has even a single born and raised Canadian ever gotten off the phone with Harpinder and his thiiiiiick Delhi accent and said “That went well” or “I’m confident that got done right” even though there was a large portion of conversation you just didn’t understand? You know, a positive experience with Customer service that left you thinking the call didnt suck? Know why it always sucks so bad? The language barrier!!!!!
Now, someone finds a way to smooth that over, creating a means of easily understanding the people you do business with and people are egreged that they’re not having to repeat themselves? They’re irritated the call will actually be fully clear and consise in their language? The audacity of Telus!!!
The only way morons should be upset by this is if they’re actually hoping for the worst communicator with the heaviest most confusing accent. All of a sudden people are chapped because they could actually understand the opening sentence in its entirety without saying “what? Sorry, what? Yeah. Didn’t catch that? Oh hi, I’m good” when all that was said was “This is Gil, how are you today?”. It takes a pretty elite level of stunned cuπt to be peeved when Telus gives you the solution to the number 1 reason people hate calling customer service!!!!
It’s not like Telus is trying to pull a fast one here. Go ahead and give me the year in which you last heard a voice on a customer service call that sounded home grown? 2012? 1995? Really, when was the last time an agent has not sounded foreign?
If I get some dude on a customer service call and he sounds like he’s from Saskatchewan, I’m calling bullshit every single time. No God damn way this is James from MooseJaw and not Kerpal from Bunglapore. Any company would be stupid trying to pull that con off. What would be an absolutely fantastic breath of fresh air though would absolutely be being able to understand what the fu(k Kerpal just said to me. AI the shite out of their voices! Telus is the one company here smart enough to make customer service not suck. Meanwhile people are praising Bell and Rogers who are flipping you the bird keeping the “uugh” sensation when you first hear the heavy Indian accent, alive and well. Nobody wants to deal with the Indians in customer service but don’t you dare God damn get rid of them or way too many chromosomal pairs are going to voice their disapproval! This has got everybody’s panties twisted up?
The idiocy is baffling.
How about a filter to reduce retard-related friction?