GenAI Jumpstart Accelerator Offers Significant Benefits for Businesses in Highly-Regulated Industries

A unique Dual-Large Language Model (LLM) Safety System safeguards against misuse, abuse and failure, including hallucinations and jailbreaking

GenAI Jumpstart’s modular architecture can be adapted for use cases spanning all industries

TELUS International (NYSE and TSX: TIXT), 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, sees potential in its GenAI Jumpstart accelerator for businesses in highly-regulated industries. With a path-to-production focus, the short eight-week engagement designed for companies at an early stage of their AI journey, rapidly identifies use cases, builds powerful risk mitigation tools and delivers a functional generative AI (GenAI)-powered virtual assistant prototype.

According to a recent survey by Everest Group, supported by TELUS International, 59% of customer experience management (CXM) leaders in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry plan to invest $1 million or more on GenAI solutions in the next 12-18 months. This result was 4% higher than the survey average for this question, which included CXM leaders from across the technology, travel & hospitality, telecom & media, retail and healthcare industries. However; when it comes to their organization’s ability to adopt and implement GenAI solutions, BFSI CXM leaders cited AI regulatory compliance as the top roadblock, followed closely by data security and privacy concerns and exposure risk from GenAI.

The company’s unique Dual-LLM Safety System, a key feature of its GenAI Jumpstart accelerator, uses a large language model (LLM) to supervise the results of a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system. A RAG-based system runs on a company’s private and secure database of controlled and secured information rather than the open internet to help ensure that responses generated by a virtual assistant only use approved information that conforms to regulatory frameworks. Unlike traditional chatbots that can struggle with maintaining up-to-date information or accessing domain-specific knowledge, this feature helps keep AI assistants focused to mitigate inaccuracies, hallucinations and jailbreaking - a form of hacking that aims to bypass or trick an AI model's guidelines and safeguards to misuse or release prohibited information.

“What is holding many companies back from truly unlocking the power of GenAI within their organizations is their lack of or limited in-house resources and expertise to safely and responsibly design and develop AI-powered solutions,” said Tobias Dengel, president of WillowTree, a TELUS International Company. “Working with a trusted partner is especially important within highly-regulated industries like banking where there is an added layer of complexity when integrating GenAI into operations due to the constant need to adapt to new and updated regulatory changes and comply with strict consumer protections due to the sensitive nature of the information being handled.”

In the same Everest Group survey, no more than 7% of customer experience management (CXM) leaders considered any of their GenAI solutions to be at a steady-state in their organization across all applications.

“For many use cases and specific tasks, particularly in highly-regulated industries but frankly a necessity across all industries, organizations must strive to retain total control over the knowledge database that an LLM references,” continues Dengel. “Our global team has the experience to take clients from whiteboard to working prototype over the course of an eight-week sprint, without sacrificing security and quality, and decreasing both time to market and critically, time to value.”

Case study: A Safe and Compliant AI Assistant in a Highly-Regulated Industry

Leveraging its GenAI Jumpstart accelerator, TELUS International and WillowTree designed and developed a next-gen chatbot experience for a leading North American multinational bank in eight weeks that balanced its need to improve customer service and productivity with the industry’s strict governance demands. The fully-automated Dual-LLM Safety System, which eliminates the need for data scientists to manually create and evaluate hundreds of prompts and responses, saves significant time. By leading research and testing with the bank’s users, the team was also able to establish customized user experience (UX) guidelines for the chatbot. Following its successful delivery, the GenAI Jumpstart offering was codified to create a safe, secure, modular architecture that can be adapted to address use cases spanning all industries.

"Through user interviews, testing strategy, risk analysis, and reporting, WillowTree has not only understood users' needs, mental models, and desires related to AI-powered virtual assistants but also established the UX guidelines and added to the bank's bot experience knowledge base,"¹ Alison Close, Research Manager, IDC Worldwide Outsourcing Services Team.

GenAI Jumpstart is part of TELUS International’s recently launched Fuel iX, the company’s enhanced solution backed by the power of generative AI to deliver end-to-end CX innovation and AI-fueled intelligent experiences (iX). The company also launched Experts Engine, a fully-managed, tech-enabled experts-on-demand sourcing solution for generative AI model builders. TELUS International is a leading provider of comprehensive, end-to-end AI data solutions, and together with WillowTree, the company is helping its global clients leverage the power of AI to meet critical CX business needs. For more information about GenAI Jumpstart, click here.

About TELUS International

TELUS International (NYSE & TSX: TIXT) designs, builds and delivers next-generation digital solutions to enhance the customer experience (CX) for global and disruptive brands. The company’s services support the full lifecycle of its clients’ digital transformation journeys, enabling them to more quickly embrace next-generation digital technologies to deliver better business outcomes. TELUS International’s integrated solutions span digital strategy, innovation, consulting and design, IT lifecycle including managed solutions, intelligent automation and end-to-end AI data solutions including computer vision capabilities, as well as omnichannel CX and trust and safety solutions including content moderation. Fueling all stages of company growth, TELUS International partners with brands across strategic industry verticals, including tech and games, communications and media, ecommerce and fintech, banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, and others.

TELUS International’s unique caring culture promotes diversity and inclusivity through its policies, team member resource groups and workshops, and equal employment opportunity hiring practices across the regions where it operates. Since 2007, the company has positively impacted the lives of more than 1.2 million citizens around the world, building stronger communities and helping those in need through large-scale volunteer events and charitable giving. Five TELUS International Community Boards have provided $5.4 million in funding to grassroots charitable organizations since 2011. Learn more at: telusinternational.com.

About WillowTree, a TELUS International Company

WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, is a digital experience consultancy partnering with the world’s most customer-centric brands to tackle their thorniest challenges. The company designs and builds mobile apps and websites, launches personalized and automated marketing campaigns, and deploys the latest in Generative AI and machine learning. WillowTree staffs small, elite teams to minimize the time from idea to code and concept to campaign — all with a relentless focus on ROI. Founded in 2008, WillowTree has a team of 1,000+ strategists, designers, engineers, and data scientists across the globe. Discover more about WillowTree, a TELUS International Company, and its suite of services at: www.willowtreeapps.com.

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