Top Headlines In Customer Contact News This Week | Week of 1/8/2023
Google, Meta face court dates, Nike ends its biggest brand partnership, and airlines face an unfortunate start to 2024.
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Welcome back to “Top Headlines In CX News This Week” here at CCW Digital where we’ll be handpicking and highlighting the most interesting news stories in customer contact and business just for your learning pleasure.
A New Year should mean new news but for the most part, in this first edition of 2024 we’re taking a look at some 2023 problems that are rearing their CX and EX heads in new ways. From AI’s place in the workforce to airlines’ ongoing struggle with customer satisfaction stats, it seems like this year will be about facing the issues we’ve been anticipating head-on.
Scroll to catch up on everything that’s happening during the first full work week of the year.
Following AI-Fueled Layoffs The Duolingo Team Isn’t Having Much Of A Hoot
The emergence and growing popularity of advanced tech tools like ChatGPT have opened new doors for the customer and employee experience alike. The ability to not only digest current data but produce new media is streamlining many aspects of the corporate workflow across industries.
RELATED MARKET STUDY: Generative AI & Chatbots
For language learning applications like Duolingo, the LLM impact is far-reaching: Per TechCrunch, “the company confirmed it cut around 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, as it turns to AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 to streamline content production and translations,” and those contractors who have since be let go are not happy about it.
Tiger Woods And Nike Call It Quits On The Longest Brand Partnership In History
Following a month of speculation, golf legend Tiger Woods and athletic apparel brand Nike respectively confirmed that the star athlete and clothing company would be parting ways in regards to their 27-year long brand partnership, reports NBC. While ending such an influential union in the high times of influencer culture seems like a shock to golf fans and Nike shoppers alike, it speaks to a larger decision by the brand to transform its image.
RELATED: How Nike Combines Customer Centricity With Brand Reputation To Stay On Top
After a bout of tough times for Woods and a 40% drop in share pricing in 2021, “Nike began distancing itself from golf in 2016 when it announced it would stop making golf equipment but continued to sign major golfers.” Since that decision, PGA Championship winner Jason Day too has made plans to leave Nike. Will the changes leave room for new branding and shopping opportunities for customers? Time will tell.
Google Goes To Court For Billions Over AI Processing Patents
“Google is set to go before a federal jury in Boston today in a trial over accusations that processors it uses to power artificial intelligence technology in key products infringe a computer scientist's patents,” Reuters reports. A Massachusetts scientist claims that after consulting the company on how to solve AI development issues from 2010-2014, that the brand took his patented chip technology to then create its own AI solutions.
RELATED: What Does Geoffery Hinton’s Exit From Google Mean For The Future Of AI?
Google, however, argues that its chips “are fundamentally different” than what is described in the patents in question. As conversations on AI design, use, ownership and data sharing grow, this $1.6 billion court case will shed light on how legislation and corporations will be managing advanced technology in the not-so-distant future.
Instagram, Facebook To Put New Parameters Around Teen Screen Time
The user experience for social media’s youngest is about to change drastically. Following lawsuits from 40 states against how Meta allows children to engage with its platforms, the company will now “automatically restrict teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content including videos and posts about self-harm, graphic violence and eating disorders,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
RELATED: With Meta's Threads, Social Media Users Face Peak Digital Burnout, Content Confusion
Expected in the coming weeks, these changes will address concerns by guardians and lawmakers on teens’ ability to be influenced by media that is not age-appropriate or safe. “The new restricted status of teen accounts means teens won’t be able to see or search for harmful content, even if it is shared by a friend or someone they follow.” For more information on what users can expect for themselves or their young ones, read on here.
Airports Ground Flights After Alaskan Air In-Flight Emergency
Another year another airline horror story, and this time it’s a dangerously big deal. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded multiple Boeing 737 planes over the weekend following “an explosive depressurization accident Friday night in which a section of an Alaska Airlines plane’s wall ripped off midflight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the aircraft,” reports the Washington Post.
RELATED: Customers Are Waiting Hours For Support From Airlines. Here's Why
Nearly 200 aircraft were grounded across airports for inspections following the incident, each of which can take four to eight hours per plane to complete. While approximately a fifth of fleets are being reviewed, 23,000 passengers across airlines are expected to change, cancel or rebook their flights in the coming days. With winter storms expected across the northeast this week as well, things are about to icey, er, dicey at the airport.
Netflix’s Top 10 Movies Signal An End–And Potential Decline–Of ‘Streaming Wars’
If you log onto Netflix this week, you will likely gravitate towards at least one of the streaming service’s recommended movies: Money Heist, Elvis, Super Mario… all of which have been markedly popular in the last year. While their notoriety is something for cinefiles to celebrate, something else is not.
“ALL of the Netflix Top 10 movies right now are licensed from legacy studios, and 9 are from studios with their own streaming services (including 4 recent hits from Warner Bros.),”
writes entertainment journalist Matthew Belloni via X. The Streaming Wars, in his words, “are officially over.”
ALL of the Netflix Top 10 movies right now are licensed from legacy studios, and 9 are from studios with their own streaming services (including 4 recent hits from Warner Bros.). The Streaming Wars are officially over. pic.twitter.com/WlnquQ6pt5
— Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) January 4, 2024
With 25% of streaming customers citing subscription fatigue, dissatisfaction with programming and inconvenience with login capabilities, the drop in Netflix originals in the top list is foreshadowing what some media experts see as the OG streaming service’s fall from grace. Learn more details on how we got to this point from Fortune.
That’s all for this week’s top news. Something catch your eye that you want to see in next week’s line-up? Send a line to wandy.ortiz@cmpteam.com.
See you next week,
Wandy Felicita Ortiz
Content Analyst, CCW Digital
