Marilyn Tyfting, chief corporate officer at Telus International, and Enda Cunnane, senior site director for Telus International AI Data Solutions in Ballina. Image: Michael Mc Laughlin
Telus International established operations in Ballina last year after acquiring Lionbridge AI, which had been based in Mayo for 20 years.
Canadian customer experience tech company Telus International has invested €1.5m in Mayo to further its growth in the AI data space.
The company today (19 July) announced the official opening of its new site in Ballina, Co Mayo.
Telus International established operations in the region in 2021 when it acquired Lionbridge AI, which had a base in Ballina for more than 20 years. It said it would create 30 jobs locally in areas such as project management and quality control.
The new Ballina site will serve as a support hub for Telus International to create and enhance data to enable better AI. The company’s AI Data Solutions division helps companies test and improve machine learning models via its global AI community of more than 1m annotators and linguists.
The company handles all data types across more than 500 languages and dialects to enhance AI systems across a range of applications from expanded speech recognition to more human-like bot interactions.
“This state-of-the-art facility will serve as a hub for innovation in the AI space,” said Enda Cunnane, senior site director for Telus International AI Data Solutions.
“We also believe it will help us attract and engage top tech and AI talent locally as well as from across Ireland and even around the world.”
Cunnane added that the company’s 200 local team members will be able to enjoy the new site and its facilities. These include meeting spaces for team collaboration, ergonomically designed workspaces, bike storage space, a canteen and a snooker table.
Telus International also has offices in Cork and Dublin. In 2019, it acquired Cork outsourcing business Voxpro, having previously acquired a majority stake in the company in 2017.
At the beginning of this year, it announced 300 new jobs at its locations in Cork, Dublin and Mayo.
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