TELUS International Fuel iX drives value for clients by providing an end-to-end next generation customer experience solution fueled by GenAI - including digital consulting, data analytics, self-service applications, and AI-enabled platform integration

Eight-week accelerator program unlocks GenAI potential with a path to production for companies at the start of their AI journeys

TELUS International, a leading digital customer experience (CX) innovator that designs, builds and delivers next-generation solutions, including artificial intelligence (AI) and content moderation, for global and disruptive brands, today announced the launch of Fuel iX, the company’s enhanced solution backed by the power of generative AI (GenAI) to deliver end-to-end CX innovation and AI-fueled intelligent experiences (iX). With Fuel iX, TELUS International helps global clients meet critical CX business needs faster, and more strategically, than ever before.

TELUS International’s comprehensive suite of innovative services combine digital consulting, data services and analytics, web and mobile application development, and an AI-fueled platform. The solution helps companies overcome disjointed data and organization silos, and ensures that AI is embedded in the functionality of day-to-day CX operations and workflows so that companies adopt it, employees use it, and customers benefit from it.

“Since our company's inception, we have been committed to driving value for our clients by helping them grow revenue, take costs and risks out of their business and serve and exceed the expectations of their customers more effectively by evolving, advancing and enhancing our capabilities to incorporate leading-edge technologies,” said Jeff Puritt, President and CEO, TELUS International. “Fuel iX is in many ways, a culmination of our team’s significant efforts over the years to position ourselves to offer a complete, end-to-end CX journey, fueled by GenAI.”

According to Deloitte, nearly two-thirds (62%) of contact centers are delivering disjointed CX across communications channels. Additionally, 34% of customers, according to the Call Centre Management Association, are most frustrated when passed to another representative during a contact or call. Fuel iX ameliorates these challenges by providing brands with end-to-end support, from consultation on strategy and roadmaps, to building the full platform and data layer, to operating a cohesive, differentiated solution to delight their end users. These integrated services address the bottleneck many companies endure in gathering accurate, high-quality datasets and accelerates the pace of proof of concept to production, all within secure, sovereign instances where client data is protected and private. Fuel iX leads brands along this path, all guided by TELUS International’s “humanity-in-the-loop approach,” leveraging reinforcement learning through human feedback to suppress data inaccuracies and bias.

As the name suggests, Fuel iX brings together the full spectrum of intelligent experiences across customer, digital, voice, user, employee and human experience. It’s with this holistic internal and external engagement view, that GenAI technology can truly create tangible value for clients. The company is already working with several clients as part of the Fuel iX offering, including iRobot and TELUS.

"We’re committed to helping businesses around the globe thrive in a digital world," said Navin Arora, Executive Vice-president, TELUS, and President, TELUS Business Solutions and TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods. "Leveraging these contextual and conversational capabilities gives us the edge for providing AI-powered innovations that create opportunities to transform customer experience, drive greater productivity, and fuel data monetization growth."

"As a customer-first organization, it is important that iRobot Customer Care is equipping our employees with the tools they need to efficiently and successfully resolve issues," said Ledia Dilo, Vice-president, Head of Global Customer Care and Fulfillment at iRobot. "TELUS International's AI agent-assist bot has been a part of improving our agents’ confidence and reducing new-hire average call handle time (AHT) by more than 10% (and up to 25% in the first five weeks). iRobot is delighted to have been recognized as ICMI's 2023 Contact Center of the Year, and we look forward to leveraging the TELUS International GenAI platform as a way to continue improving our customer and employee experience moving forward.”

GenAI Jumpstart Accelerator Program

For companies at an early stage of their AI and data journey, TELUS International’s GenAI Jumpstart accelerator program provides an eight-week engagement to help unlock the GenAI potential in an organization. With a path-to-production focus, the accelerator program can rapidly identify GenAI use cases, build powerful risk mitigation tools, and deliver a bespoke prototype to help demonstrate the value of AI to the business.

"As part of GenAI Jumpstart, we've been working with a leading global financial services firm to create a GenAI customer service chatbot to empower customers with a robust conversational literacy tool,” said Tobias Dengal, President of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company. “We designed guardrails and used sophisticated methods of hallucination mitigation to keep the conversation between the customer and the bot relevant and high value. For this particular client, the engagement took less than eight weeks to design a full proof of concept and path-to-production vision that can now be enhanced with additional Fuel iX capabilities.”

Netwrix has upgraded half of its product portfolio in the past six months.

Netwrix, a cybersecurity vendor that makes data security easy, has released new versions of eight products since March 2023. The enhancements further help customers reduce the risk of breaches and limit the impact of attacks by empowering IT teams to fortify the security posture and to promptly detect and respond to threats and recover from them faster and with less effort. 

Solutions with notable key enhancements include the following: 

• Active Directory (AD) security solution:

- Netwrix Threat Manager (formerly Netwrix StealthDEFEND) now detects AS-REP Roasting attacks to prevent adversaries from taking over user accounts.

- Netwrix StealthINTERCEPT now accelerates detection of LSASS access blocking by third-party software to enable swift recognition and resolution of the situation. 

- Netwrix Password Policy Enforcer makes it even easier for users to choose strong, compliant passwords by providing them with real-time feedback about proposed new passwords.

• Identity and access management (IAM) solution:

- Netwrix Password Secure enhances the security of the account creation process with token verification of the user's identity during multi-factor authentication (MFA) setup.

- Netwrix Usercube further reduces the attack surface by removing direct role assignments that are redundant given the role model's rules. 

• Privileged access management (PAM) solution:

-  Netwrix PolicyPak further enhances least-privilege management on endpoints by adding support of MacOS. Now customers are empowered to control local admin rights across Windows and MacOS computers to ensure robust endpoint security posture without affecting end-user productivity.

- Netwrix Auditor improves control over privileged groups in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) with a dedicated report that facilitates regular access reviews.

• Multi-tenant SaaS auditing product designed for MSPs:

- Netwrix 1Secure now accelerates incident detection and response across the SharePoint Online and on-premises infrastructure of each MSP customer. Plus, detailed reports on AD risk metrics simplify assessment of their security posture and pinpoint risky accounts.

"Because nearly 3 in 4 organizations today have a hybrid IT architecture, Netwrix is focused on enabling strong, consistent security measures across the whole on-premises and cloud infrastructure," says Michael Tweddle, Chief Product Officer at Netwrix. "Our near-term product roadmap is aimed at enhancing our support of cloud services and instances to address the ongoing security challenges of cloud adoption."

• Combination expected to deliver a more than five-fold expansion in Lumentum’s cloud intra-data center served opportunity

• Served opportunity expected to grow at over 30% CAGR through 2028, driven by investments to support the rapid proliferation of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) applications

• Acquisition expected to be immediately accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share and to more than double Lumentum’s cloud intra-data center infrastructure revenue in the 12-month period following the transaction close

• Lumentum to host an investor call today, October 30, at 5:30 a.m. PT to discuss the transaction

Lumentum Holdings Inc. (“Lumentum”) and Cloud Light Technology Limited (“Cloud Light”) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Lumentum will acquire Cloud Light with a transaction value of approximately $750 million, subject to certain adjustments. At the time of closing, transaction consideration will be paid in cash and the assumption and substitution of outstanding unvested Cloud Light options. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and by Cloud Light’s shareholders.

The acquisition of Cloud Light is expected to accelerate Lumentum’s push into the fastest growing segments of the multibillion-dollar opportunity for optical modules used in cloud computing data center infrastructure. Cloud Light has a demonstrated track record of developing and manufacturing the highest-speed connectivity solutions at the leading edge of new and rapidly growing technology transitions. Nearly all of Cloud Light’s more than $200M revenue in the last 12 months was derived from 400G or higher speed transceiver sales. In the most recent quarter, over half of Cloud Light’s optical transceiver revenue was derived from 800G modules.

With this acquisition, Lumentum will be well-positioned to serve the growing needs of cloud and networking customers, particularly those focused on optimizing their data center infrastructure for the demands of AI/ML. Lumentum will be able to deliver immediate customer value with a more comprehensive product and technology portfolio, enabling customers to more effectively manage the escalating compute and interconnect requirements of AI workloads. The combination also brings best-in-class design and assembly, test, and packaging capabilities together with Lumentum’s global scale and customer reach.

“With Cloud Light, we are making a strategic investment to significantly expand our opportunities in the cloud data center and networking infrastructure space,” said Alan Lowe, Lumentum president and CEO. “Cloud Light provides us with the highest speed transceiver solutions at scale and complements our advanced component capabilities. This results in a broad product and technology portfolio that addresses a wide range of cloud operator needs.”

“We are confident that this transaction will deliver substantial, long-term value to our stockholders, with immediate earnings accretion and accelerated revenue growth. We look forward to welcoming Cloud Light’s very talented team to Lumentum,” concluded Mr. Lowe.

“Today’s announcement is a pivotal milestone in the history of Cloud Light, and a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees,” said Dr. Dennis Tong, Cloud Light Founder and CEO. “We founded the company with a vision that our deep expertise in high-volume precision manufacturing would result in a superior value proposition for cloud data center customers. Having worked closely with the technology teams within leading cloud operators, we believe we can build upon our success to date and further accelerate cloud data center growth by combining Lumentum’s advanced photonic integration and transmission technologies with our highly automated packaging and manufacturing processes. We look forward to joining the Lumentum team and beginning an exciting new chapter.”

Compelling Strategic and Financial Benefits

• Captures AI inflection with expanded intra-data center opportunity: The highly complementary combination squarely positions Lumentum as a leader in providing photonics to cloud operators, enabling more than a five-fold expansion in the company’s served opportunity inside of data centers. With the advent of generative AI, cloud network needs for 400G and higher speed optical transceivers have accelerated rapidly, with the opportunity for these intra-data center products anticipated to grow at a 30% CAGR and exceed $10B by 2028. Cloud Light provides the highest speed optical transceiver products to leading hyperscale cloud customers, with even higher-speed solutions well along in their development, complementing Lumentum’s existing portfolio of laser transmitters and other integrated components for data center transceivers.

• Better equipped to address future customer roadmaps: AI models are driving an exponential increase in compute requirements, where performance is now doubling every 3 to 4 months, compared to the historical doubling every two years according to Moore’s Law. Scaling workloads even higher is limited by existing network and interconnect bottlenecks. With the addition of Cloud Light, Lumentum better addresses these challenges – both now and into the future – by combining advanced optical interconnect technologies based on chip-scale photonic integration, together with highly automated packaging and manufacturing technologies.

• More strategic partner to cloud and AI infrastructure customers: With Cloud Light, Lumentum can more effectively address the growing and diverse needs of cloud operator and AI infrastructure providers. This includes providing next-generation optical connectivity and optical switching within data centers, as well as coherent pluggable modules and optical line system components for data center interconnect applications. With Lumentum’s vertical integration capabilities in components and diversity in its global manufacturing footprint, customers can benefit from improved security of supply and superior technology and cost roadmaps.

• Amplifies edge and metro networking opportunities: Cloud Light’s proven capabilities in low-cost product development and high-volume manufacturing are relevant not only for cloud data center and data center interconnect solutions, but also for network edge applications, including those served by direct detect and coherent tunable DWDM transceivers. A broader set of networking customers will benefit from the added advanced packaging technologies and manufacturing capabilities offered by this combination.

• Immediately accretive to Lumentum’s earnings and accelerates Lumentum growth: The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Lumentum’s non-GAAP earnings per share and is expected to more than double Lumentum’s cloud data center infrastructure revenue in the 12-month period following the transaction close. In the last twelve months, over 90 percent of Cloud Light’s revenue was derived from 400G and higher speed products, and in their most recent quarter, over half of Cloud Light’s optical transceiver revenue was derived from 800G transceiver products.

Transaction Financing and Approvals

Lumentum intends to finance the transaction through cash from its balance sheet. The transaction is expected to close by the end of calendar 2023, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Advisors

BofA Securities served as the exclusive financial advisor to Lumentum and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation served as legal advisor. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP served as legal advisor to Cloud Light.

Usercentrics, a leading provider of consent management solutions, has reported on shockingly low rates of GDPR compliance in multiple industries in the European Union. This lack of attention on data privacy and user consent is about to get even riskier with Digital Markets Act (DMA) enforcement beginning March 6, 2024.

No consent, no revenue: The Digital Markets Act's wake-up call for advertisers

While the DMA most directly affects the six “gatekeeper” companies designated by the European Commission — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft — it’s often overlooked that it will also affect all companies with digital operations in the EU that rely on those six tech giants’ platforms and services.

“The DMA will be a big wake up call for a lot of companies. It basically means: no consent, no revenue. It’s not just an additional regulation requiring companies with business in the EU and EEA to obtain explicit consent from users before processing their personal data. On top of it, gatekeepers will likely require companies using their services for advertising, ecommerce, analytics and more to adopt compliant consent management processes”, explains Donna Dror, CEO of Usercentrics.

Failing to comply with the Digital Markets Act is a very expensive risk for the gatekeepers. However, for third parties, failing to comply is no less risky, as they would face the loss of data, audience and revenue that would come with losing access to the user base, data and services Google, Meta, and others provide.

Save your advertising revenue and analytics data: Usercentrics gets you ready for the DMA

The good news is that Digital Markets Act compliance and meeting the gatekeepers’ requirements is easy to achieve. With Usercentrics and Cookiebot Consent Management Platforms (CMPs), companies can inform users about what data is collected, for what purposes, and with whom it may be shared. Then they can collect and store valid consent, which they can signal to gatekeepers.

The CMPs' make DMA compliance effortless by enabling direct integrations with leading web and ecommerce content management systems (CMS), including WordPress, Magento, HubSpot, Joomla, and Shopify. Additionally, they provide support for app and TV platforms, as well as cross-platform frameworks like iOS, Android, Unity, and React.

Combilift recognized by Constellation Research for leadership in deploying disruptive technology

Infor^®, the industry cloud company, today announced that Infor customer Combilift has been honored by Constellation Research with a 2023 SuperNova Award for leadership in deploying disruptive technology.

Combilift's IT manager, Fearghal McCorriston, was named the winner in the Next Generation Customer Experience category. Combilift is the largest global manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts and an acknowledged leader in long-load handling solutions. It uses Infor CloudSuite Industrial and Infor AI.

The 2023 SuperNova Award winners represent individuals, teams and organizations who have overcome significant hurdles amidst rising inflation, the boom of generative AI and a post-pandemic environment. They demonstrated excellence in responding to disruptive forces, implemented novel initiatives, and delivered proven results with the technical prowess needed for reinventing modern organizations. Out of 31 total finalists, six were Infor customers across multiple regions and industries.

"The SuperNova Awards reflect the best and brightest leaders and teams that have shown demonstrable ROI in business transformation," said R "Ray" Wang, chairman and founder of Constellation Research. "This year's winners have set the bar on what the art of the possible is and continue the tradition of delivering sustainable innovation."

"This year's nine SuperNova Awards winners stood apart from the more than 60 nominees and 31 finalists in this year's awards program," said Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. "What distinguishes a SuperNova winner is not just technology innovation but concrete business results and outstanding returns on technology investment. Congratulations!"

The winners were announced at the SuperNova Awards gala at Constellation's Connected Enterprise.

SuperNova Award for Next Generation Customer Experience
Fearghal McCorriston, IT manager, Combilift

Ireland-based Combilift is the world's fastest-growing forklift manufacturer, exporting to more than 85 countries and with more than 60,000 trucks in use worldwide. Combilift places tremendous significance on customer experience. Specifically, in the realm of forklift service maintenance, customer satisfaction is closely tied to its ability to achieve first-time fixes. By resolving issues promptly during the initial visit, Combilift minimizes downtime and associated costs, leading to increased customer satisfaction. 

With a vast fleet of trucks in service, each tailored to individual customer needs, the company must maintain a comprehensive stock of thousands of parts and rely on experienced and knowledgeable staff who can navigate through relevant manuals to determine the precise combination of parts necessary for each service.  

Using Infor OS and Infor AI as part of Infor CloudSuite Industrial, Combilift has achieved these benefits:

• 30% increase in first-time fixes
• 30% faster completion of service jobs
• 30% increase in revenue per transaction
• 40% reduction in service job costs
• 75% faster time to determine related parts (20 minutes reduced to 5 minutes)
• Value realization in less than 90 days

"We're incredibly proud and excited for Combilift's recognition for next-gen customer experience through contextual, AI-driven recommendations that drive more accurate and timely service requirements," said Rick Rider, Infor SVP, product management. "Their ability to drive first-time fix approaches across their customer base using their blended approach of technology and creative culture is what helps set them apart in their industry. We're thrilled Infor could help play a role in that ongoing, continuous innovation journey."

SPEC Broadens Portfolio with Addition of Embedded Microprocessor Benchmarks, Creating the Industry’s Most Comprehensive Organization for Computer Performance Benchmark Standards

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC), the trusted global leader in computing benchmarks, today announced that EEMBC, the 25-year-old Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, has become SPEC’s new Embedded Group (SPEC EG). EEMBC is known for developing industry-standard benchmarks for measuring the performance and energy efficiency of embedded processor hardware and software used in autonomous driving, mobile imaging, the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile devices, and more. The addition of EEMBC broadens SPEC’s portfolio with more than 15 highly regarded benchmarks for embedded computers and enables both organizations to share workloads and infrastructure costs to allow for more investment in research and development.

The combination of SPEC and EEMBC offers significant advantages to both members and customers. EEMBC gains access to workloads and harnesses developed across SPEC’s more than 20 committees, enabling faster and more efficient benchmark development. For example, SPEC EG benchmark developers can integrate the PTDaemon interface to enable measurements using a vast array of modern power analyzers and temperature sensors. EEMBC also gains access to SPEC’s administrative resources, enabling it to reduce costs and increase investments. With the addition of SPEC EG, SPEC expands its portfolio of computing benchmarks to enable measurements from the smallest microcontroller to the largest supercomputers.

“SPEC warmly welcomes EEMBC as the third major performance benchmark consortium to have chosen to join SPEC, enabling us to even more broadly address the critical international need for trusted, independent computing benchmarks,” said SPEC President David Reiner. “Given the growing adoption of edge compute and IoT, along with the insatiable desire for artificial intelligence edge inference, embedded systems are a critical industry with a direct effect on all our daily lives. With a remarkable 40+ standardized benchmarks, the combination of SPEC and EEMBC means the industry now has one source for benchmarks covering most areas of compute, giving customers the ability to evaluate the specific type of performance or energy efficiency they care about most.”

“The combination of our two great organizations is a huge plus for the entire technology industry, and I’m especially happy that EEMBC member organizations are gaining access to SPEC’s comprehensive expertise across the range of computing technologies, along with a broad array of benchmark workloads,” said Peter Torelli, the retiring President and CTO of EEMBC. “Making quality benchmarks is extremely hard and only getting more complex. Continued success depends on bringing together seasoned and talented professionals to collaborate in a more comprehensive, industry leading standards organization like SPEC. I believe we have set the ideal course for the future of embedded microprocessor performance benchmarking.”

The founding members of SPEC EG include representatives from Arm, Intel, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Silicon Labs, STMicroelectronics, and Synopsys. Individuals and organizations can join SPEC EG by visiting the SPEC membership page.

Since 1997, EEMBC has developed clearly defined standards for measuring the performance and energy efficiency of embedded processor implementations, including today’s IoT edge nodes and next-generation advanced driver-assistance systems. The benchmark suites are used to obtain performance measurements of devices and to compare the performance of various processor choices for a given application. The primary audience for the scores yielded by these benchmarks are companies creating systems that rely on embedded microcontrollers and microprocessors, everything from smartphones to solar panels.

SPEC EG now offers the EEMBC benchmarks in the following areas:

• Ultra-Low Power and Internet of Things, including IoTMark, a suite of benchmarks for measuring the energy efficiency of IoT edge nodes, and ULPMark, a benchmark for quantifying the many aspects of ultra-low power microcontrollers (MCUs).
• Heterogeneous Compute, including ADASMark, a suite of performance measurement and optimization tools for automotive companies building next-generation advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and MLMark, a machine-learning (ML) benchmark designed to measure the performance and accuracy of embedded inference.
• Single-core Processor Performance, including CoreMark, a simple yet sophisticated benchmark that produces a single-number score for comparing processors, and AutoBench, a suite of benchmarks for predicting the performance of microprocessors and microcontrollers in automotive, industrial, and general-purpose applications.
• Multi-core Processor Performance, including CoreMark-Pro and AutoBench-2.0, which add parallelism and new workloads to the single-core versions.
• Phone and Tablet, including BrowsingBench, which measures browser performance.

Consumer Study Conducted by Alliance for Video-Level Contextual Advertising Found that Viewers Presented with Contextually Relevant Ads Have 300% Higher Brand Recall

Due to the advanced targeting capabilities of CTV, advertisers can now get more granular in how they pair their ads with the precise contextual indicators within individual episodes. A new study by Alliance for Video-Level Contextual Advertising (AVCA), an organization dedicated to funding research into the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for contextual advertising in streaming, found that consumers pay nearly 4X (3.9X) more attention to ads that are hyper-relevant to the content they are watching.

The research, titled Driving Viewer Attention and Brand Metrics in CTV Advertising, sought to determine how effective contextual targeting enabled by AI is compared to current targeting methods (demo targeting and publisher-declared metadata), to increase ad relevance, viewer attention and brand perception.

"When we established the AVCA, our mission was to advance the knowledge and understanding of video-level contextual intelligence to deliver superior user experiences and the highest value for publishers and brands in ad-supported streaming environments," said Rohan Castelino, CMO of IRIS.TV, and Principal Member of AVCA. "In our first study, we found consumers respond better when the ads they see are relevant to the specific content they are watching. Attention is a scarce resource and as CTV continues to grow, advertisers need to seek out deep contextual relevance to achieve strong return on ad spend."

Consumers Recall Ads Targeted with Contextual Segments Created by AI
AI-enabled contextually targeted ads attract and hold consumer attention as these ads had 300% higher aided brand recall and double the unaided brand recall of ads that were targeted using standard demographic data and publisher-declared metadata such as keywords, genre, and rating.

The study also found viewers of AI-enabled contextual targeting were least distracted, generating 15% more total ad attention than ads targeted with demographic and publisher-declared metadata. In fact, 63% of respondents stated that they paid more attention to AI-enabled contextually targeted ads.

Nearly a quarter (22%) more AI-enabled contextually targeted ads were seen from the beginning as viewers were less likely to look away when programming transitions into an ad break.

"Hyper-relevance is paramount for CTV engagement," added Mike Renfro, VP of Brand and Agency Partnerships at Silverpush. "When it comes to bidstream targeting, it's all about hitting the bullseye with contextually aligned in-video moments – a capability only achievable through video-level pre-bid decisioning. Amassing a wealth of first-party audience data is insufficient if your ad goes unnoticed. AI precision guarantees your message reaches the right audience at the perfect moment and in the most fitting context."

AI-enabled Contextual Targeting Drives Value for Brands in CTV
Ads placed adjacent to relevant content can be a significant differentiator for brands understanding the effectiveness of their campaigns and brand recognition amongst consumers:

• 42% of viewers said they were more interested in the brand and products.
• 38% learned more about a product shown in AI-enabled contextually targeted ads.

"As advertisers continue shifting spend into CTV, the need for actionable, scalable video-level contextual solutions has become critical to improving transparency for buyers and increasing returns for programmers," said Amit Nigam, VP of Product, Beachfront. "These findings and insights from AVCA demonstrate that, when enriched with AI, contextual data is a powerful driver of key branding measures and an impactful means for capturing viewer attention."

Poor Brand Suitability Reduces Brand Favorability
Even though the panel knew the content was a comedy intended for mature audiences and often satirized serious situations, respondents expressed confusion and frustration for ad placements they perceived as misaligned to the content resulting in negative brand favorability. In one example a scene depicting the characters joking about a serious disease preceded a pharmaceutical ad for a drug that treats serious diseases.

"I feel like I almost go in my shell, pretend like it didn't happen," said one respondent. "I think that it would have more of a negative effect on how I would perceive the brand just because I don't like feeling uncomfortable."

When analyzing how brand suitability impacts CTV viewers' attention and brand perception:

• More than half (54%) of respondents were less interested in the brand and products found in contextually misaligned ads.
• More than one-third of viewers liked the brand less and paid less attention when an ad was placed in unsuitable environments.

Respondents stated that the generic nature of ads in those environments were the least engaging and inspiring. Respondents' feedback to these ads was  similar to ads described as having poor brand suitability as they were likely to trigger disengagement and rejection of the ad.

"Brands must be more vigilant than ever about avoiding streaming content that may have a negative impact on their audiences," said Matt Duffy, CMO of Pixability. "At best, viewers tune out and the spend is wasted; at worst, half of them have a negative opinion of the brand. The good news is that AI solutions now make it possible for us to target and filter for brand suitability with nuance so brands can reach the right viewer in the right moment."

Castelino concluded, "In CTV, contextual relevance is the biggest driver of viewer attention and brand perception revealing that it's more important that consumers are 'in the mood' for a brand's ads than even being 'in-market' for their products. To engage consumers in streaming, brands must integrate deeper content data sets into their targeting strategies."

Shutterstock, Inc., a leading global creative platform offering high-quality creative content for transformative brands, digital media and marketing companies, today announced new creative AI-powered editing features and the potential for infinite options to refine and perfect images available in the company's high-quality library of more than 700 million stock images.

"This is an unprecedented offering in the stock photography industry," said Paul Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer for Shutterstock. "Now, creatives have everything they need to craft the perfect content for any project with AI-powered design capabilities that you can use to edit stock images within Shutterstock's library, presenting infinite possibilities to make stock your own."

Now in beta, Shutterstock's creative AI editing features leverage the company's priority access to the latest OpenAI technology supporting the integration of synthetic editing capabilities. This allows Shutterstock customers to not just generate new content using AI, but also to simply edit and transform any image in the entire Shutterstock library to accelerate ideation and production.

"Shutterstock was founded with the goal of bridging the gap between photographers and the creative professionals who want to license their content," continued Hennessy. "This new offering will bring our customers one step closer to their desired creative, as if they were directing the photoshoot themselves."

With six signature capabilities, additional secondary features like a virtual AI design assistant and the most advanced filters available in the industry, as well as additional features expected to launch at a later date, Shutterstock's creative AI editing suite will empower brands, digital media, and marketing companies to unlock transformative possibilities in content creation and ideation. Shutterstock will give a live demo of these features on November 9 during the Shutterstock Showcase: Creative AI virtual series.

Signature capabilities include:

• Magic Brush: Magically modify an image by brushing over the areas you'd like to change and simply describing what you want to add, replace or erase
• Variations: Generate alternate options of any stock or AI-generated image
• Expand Image: Broaden the view of any image, as easily as if zooming out through a camera lens, to see more of the scene behind the central image
• Smart Resize: Automatically change the shape of your image to match the dimensions you need
• Background Remover: Remove or replace the background with any scene when the subject of an image is perfect, but the background is not
• AI Image Generator: Launched in beta earlier this year and soon to be updated with the latest version of Dall-E, this tool allows anyone to create high-quality, ethically-sourced visuals in seconds (ready for licensing and indemnifiable for commercial use) by simply describing what they are looking for

Artists will be compensated if their images are licensed after editing. However, in alignment with Shutterstock's Contributor Account and Content Submission Guidelines, AI-generated or edited content will not be accepted as a submission for licensing on the platform to further ensure the protection of contributor IP and proper compensation of artists.

The launch of Shutterstock's creative AI editing suite follows several strategic steps the company has taken as one of the leading innovators bringing ethical and responsible AI advancements to the creative industry. Shutterstock also recently joined the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), through which the company will support the CAI's goal of addressing the prevalence of misleading information online through the implementation of technical standards for certifying the source and history of media content by integrating Content Credentials. Shutterstock intends to integrate the CAI's underlying Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard into its AI capabilities and various creativity tools, including its DALL·E-powered AI Image Generator and suite of AI-powered applications to further protect its users with verifiable and tamper-evident information across all forms of content. With Content Credentials, this will include ensuring each asset is certified with secure metadata about its creation, authorship and edit history.