Narayan AmmachchiCanadian BPO provider Telus International has acquired the artificial intelligence (AI) unit of Lionbridge Technologies for US$935 million, adding data-labeling service to its offerings.
Waltham, Mass-based Lionbridge AI annotates data in text, images, videos, and audio in more than 300 languages and dialects. Data annotation is a process of labeling data to make it usable for AI systems.
Lionbridge AI has more than 750 employees in countries that include the US, Ireland, Finland, India, the UK, Japan, Denmark, Costa Rica, and South Korea.
The technology solutions from Lionbridge may also help Telus to empower its AI-based chatbots that are currently answering millions of calls at its contact centers. Analysts say Telus International may soon start selling data-labeling and annotation services to its existing customers.
“With the addition of Lionbridge AI, Telus International will further progress its penetration of the fast-growing new economy services market that will enable our team to support important AI applications as demand for high-quality, multilingual data annotation continues to increase,” said Darren Entwistle, Telus CEO in a statement.
The news comes just as Telus International is preparing to go public. The Canadian firm is also launching innovation centers in an apparent bid to focus on new technology solutions.
The BPO firm is still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It has reported a 27% decrease in its third-quarter profit.
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