{"id":28828,"date":"2026-05-06T01:14:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/28828\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:14:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:14:38","slug":"telus-using-ai-to-alter-the-accents-of-customer-service-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/28828\/","title":{"rendered":"Telus using AI to alter the accents of customer service agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Telus headquarters in Vancouver. The company is deploying an AI tool to adjust the speech of its customer service agents, saying it will improve clarity and reduce ‘accent-related friction.’DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The voice you hear on the other side of a call-centre interaction might soon sound a little more familiar, thanks to an AI tool that adjusts speech in real time \u2013 but not everyone thinks it\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n

Telus Digital, the wholly owned division of Telus Corp. T-T<\/a> responsible for customer experience and call centres, has deployed artificial-intelligence technology that alters the accent of customer service agents. <\/p>\n

In a post on the company\u2019s website explaining the benefits of speech enhancement, Telus Digital says the technology, provided by a third-party company called Tomato.ai, uses speech-to-speech models to transform live audio. <\/p>\n

It works by encoding the speaker\u2019s voice, modifying pronunciation-related features, then decoding the speech back into audio, the company said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese models directly modify the acoustic features of speech, preserving the speaker\u2019s voice while improving clarity and reducing accent-related friction,\u201d the company wrote in its post. \u201cThis approach allows the solution to address mispronunciations without altering the speaker\u2019s identity or emotional tone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other companies that provide a similar feature say it helps speed up calls and help customers find solutions, while protecting service agents from harassment or discrimination. <\/p>\n

Telus Digital provides the call-centre support for the company\u2019s Canadian telecom subscribers, as well as other clients globally. <\/p>\n

The company is already using the service internally, according to union representatives. It\u2019s not clear whether the feature is yet being used in calls with telecom customers. The company did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The use of technology to alter the human voice is not itself new, and responds to a complaint among some callers who say it can be difficult to understand heavy foreign accents.<\/p>\n

However, real-time accent alteration reflects a recent use of AI that is stirring debate, especially after a series of customer-service-related job reductions in Canada within the telecom sector in recent years.<\/p>\n

For labour representatives, the feature is another concern among many when it comes to the effects of AI on their members. <\/p>\n

At a hearing before the parliamentary standing committee on industry and technology last week, Roch Leblanc, Unifor telecommunications director, called on government to require companies to inform Canadians when AI was being used. <\/p>\n

He told members of Parliament that the union was aware of at least one Big Three telco using AI to mask the accents of offshore agents, \u201caltering how customers perceive who they\u2019re talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of AI technology to deceive Canadians in any way should be prohibited,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

United Steelworkers Local 1944 president Michael Phillips said he is aware of Telus using the technology internally, between agents based in Canada and overseas. <\/p>\n

He said that he was informed by a B.C.-based Telus employee that they had spoken with an agent in the Philippines. According to that employee, \u201cthis overseas agent was laughing about it, turning the accent masker on and off, revealing their Filipino accent, and then, taking the accent away when they turned on the AI technology,\u201d Mr. Phillips said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019re trying to figure out what the parameters around AI and AI limitations are, I think that a very clear right that Canadians should insist on is the right to not be deceived by AI, especially not by folks that they are paying to provide telephone services for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Eric Smith, senior vice-president at industry group Canadian Telecommunications Association \u2013 which does not represent Telus \u2013 said the focus should be on the outcomes of new AI tools, and whether they can improve operational efficiency to help keep costs down for Canadians, while doing so in a responsible way.<\/p>\n

He said he is not familiar with the specific accent-altering technology being used, but that generally, telecom providers are exploring how artificial intelligence can be used to resolve issues more quickly, reduce waiting times and provide more consistent support across the various channels, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI can play an important role in improving operational efficiency, which help keep costs down for Canadians and consumers, and help support continued investment in building high quality networks,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Matthew Hatfield, director at OpenMedia, a non-profit that advocates for widespread and inexpensive internet access, said he was less concerned about the use of accent-masking technology itself than the fact that companies are \u201cmoving people away from humans as much as possible outside of these interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether to require the presence of humans in telecom customer interactions has become a complicated question. A few weeks ago, for instance, the telecom regulator required companies to implement a cancellation option online, so that customers would not be required to call in and speak with a representative to do so.<\/p>\n

In statements, both Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T<\/a> and Bell Canada parent company BCE Inc. BCE-T<\/a> said they do not use accent-altering technology and do not plan to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Telus headquarters in Vancouver. The company is deploying an AI tool to adjust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[405,7537,18939,18938],"class_list":{"0":"post-28828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agentic-ai","8":"tag-ai-agents","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence-agents","10":"tag-pleasemod","11":"tag-streetwise"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}