No Jitter is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

No Jitter Roll: Microsoft Highlights 32 New Teams Features; TCN Debuts SMS Consent Tracking; Generative AI Driving Interest, Skepticism

NoJitterRoll_5820.jpg

A telehealth appointment
Image: elenabsl - stock.adobe.com

Welcome to this week's No Jitter Roll, our regular roundup of product news in the communication and collaboration spaces. This week NJR highlights some of the features introduced into Microsoft Teams during May 2023, the addition of consent tracking for SMS in TCN’s call/contact center platform, the simultaneous interest in and distrust of generative AI according to a survey by StoryStream and the rapid growth in traffic to the OpenAI website.

 

Microsoft Introduced 32 New Features into Teams During May 2023

In May 2023, Microsoft introduced 32 new features for its enterprise unified communications (UC) and collaboration product, Teams. Standouts among the new features include:

  • Meetings Active Speaker: This view renders the active speaker at a higher resolution. The main area designated for the active speaker is also used for shared content. (Note: “Speaker view” is not the default view; it must be selected under “View” in the meeting toolbar.)
  • Meetings Recap: Available on the “Recap” tab, this feature allows users to watch the meeting recording within Teams and it provides access to co-created collaborative meeting notes, meeting transcript, and shared content.
  • Teams Phone: with user managed CQ/AA greetings for Teams end users, authorized users identified by Teams tenant admins can change greetings and announcements for their respective call queues and auto attendants without leaving Teams.
  • Teams Rooms: Thanks to the new SIP guest join experience Cloud Video Interop (CVI) customers can join Microsoft Teams Rooms meetings without organizers having to manage meeting coordinates in the invite.

Want to know more?

As highlighted in earlier editions of No Jitter Roll, Microsoft Teams has become an integral part of enterprise collaboration:

 

TCN Enhances SMS Consent Tracking Feature for its Advanced Contact Center Platform, TCN Operator

The provider of cloud-based call center platform for enterprises, contact centers, BPOs and collection agencies, announced a new SMS Consent Tracking feature which will help contact centers manage consumer consent and stay compliant by tracking and recording individual and channel-specific consent for every contact.

Offered as a part of the platform’s Natural Language Compliance (NLC) tool, the SMS Consent Tracking feature generates specific URLs for websites and text messages after users provide consent. These links allow consumers to self-manage their consent profiles on their preferred communication channel. These permissions can be collected via web, SMS, email and by an agent during an interaction.

Want to know more?

No Jitter often provides insightful discussion and analysis of contact center tools and solutions that are designed to improve the customer experience. Some examples include:

 

New Survey Highlights Consumer Concern Over the Need for Transparency in Generative-AI Content

New research conducted by StoryStream showed that 94% of consumers would like to see more transparency and regulation around the use of generative AI technology in marketing and advertising. The survey, which included 600 respondents from the USA, U.K., Canada, and Australia, examined opinions on various aspects of Generative AI, ranging from ethical considerations to trust in AI-generated content.

Alex Vaidya, CEO of StoryStream said that in this research his company asked “consumers already broadly familiar with the concept of generative AI – what they want to see from brands in their marketing and advertising. And what we’re learning is that understanding consumer expectations and concerns will remain a crucial ingredient for building trust.”

Some of the key findings include:

  • Gen Z respondents exhibited the highest positivity rate (74%) toward generative AI, while the 55+ age range displayed the lowest positivity rate (35%).
  • When asked about the ethical implications of using generative AI technology for content creation, 42% of respondents unequivocally supported its use, while 34% opposed it.
  • When asked about sharing personal data with brands, 51% of respondents were comfortable with brands using their personal data for personalization. Gen Z respondents were those most likely to be willing to share their personal data (58%).
  • 77% of respondents believed that generative AI technology can create more personalized and relevant experiences.

Want to know more?

Generative AI is one of the hottest topics both with respect to personalization, as well its inclusion in the overall customer experience. Consider the following thought leadership pieces about the use of generative AI:

  • Understanding the Role of Generative AI in Modernizing Customer Experience: Generative AI is impacting the role of customer service agents, challenging the belief that AI might make these roles redundant. Despite significant, recent advancements there are situations where generative AI falls short – which, paradoxically, makes customer service agents both less and more important.
  • Are We Moving Too Fast with AI?: A sneak peek at some key themes that emerged from a joint RingCentral/Ipsos survey of full-time workers around the world who were asked about their attitudes and expectations regarding the use of AI in the workplace.
  • Do You Really Want ChatGPT Talking to Your Customers?: Generative AI promises to revolutionize the contact center industry, but is this just another attempt at avoiding the obvious: You have to pay agents more if they are going to care about your customers.
  • Finally, we have our generative AI cheat sheet, which gives succinct definitions for all the terms you're likely to hear whenever anyone's talking about this new technology.

 

ChatGPT maker OpenAI Website Traffic at 1.6 billion Visits in March 2023

Webflow agency VezaDigital analyzed traffic statistics for the top 50 websites with the highest total number of visits in March 2023, based on data from web analytics firm Similarweb. It discovered that openai.com grew by 54.21% in traffic volume within a month – the largest increase of all the top-ranking websites worldwide. OpenAI surpassed the 1-billion-visits milestone in February 2023 and continued growing to 1.6 billion visits in March 2023. Every ninth visitor is from the US – the website’s main source of traffic.

Want to know more?

The ongoing inclusion of generative AI models into contact center, unified communications and collaboration tools will change how these platforms work – and how people work with them. Check out the following articles to learn more:


This Week on No Jitter

In case you missed them, here are some of our top stories for the week: