ActiveCampaign, the leader in marketing automation, email marketing and CRM, is putting down roots in San José, Costa Rica and will have 100 employees in the hub within 12 months. Latin America is one of the company's fastest growing regions, with local businesses growing through the power of ActiveCampaign's platform every day. With offices in Brazil and Colombia already, ActiveCampaign is making a larger investment in the region by expanding engineering and customer teams to improve the global customer experience and operations of the business. Costa Rica hosts a large number of successful technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Akamai and Smartsheet. As the latest technology leader to open a hub in the country, ActiveCampaign will be able to support more businesses in the region and across the globe, who need resources in both English and Spanish.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Speedpay, Inc., a Western Union subsidiary, announced an alliance with Beguided, Inc., a technology company that provides enterprise solutions for increased customer engagement. Through this strategic alliance, Speedpay has fully integrated Avapay, a proprietary avatar-guided payment channel, into its platform to offer customers a customizable and efficient payments experience that utilizes Artificial Intelligence to power self-service platforms. "As a pioneer in the payments industry, Speedpay is dedicated to providing clients with a suite of tools and solutions that simplifies the billing process, providing an efficient, convenient approach to making payments," said Frank Lockridge, senior vice president, Western Union Global Payments and head of Speedpay. "Beguided's virtual agent offering is a unique solution that enhances overall efficiency by freeing up time for live representatives to tackle more complicated customer service issues. By offering this tool, Speedpay provides billers with another way to better serve their customers and improve their business processes."

Two-thirds of those surveyed by Morar Consulting for digital agency Squiz said the biggest AI opportunity for customer experience is use of the data it provides. As we explore in this article, AI can help companies to optimize customers experience by better understanding customers and their journeys, offering smart recommendations and providing service and support. A quarter think AI will reduce human error and 15 percent say it will allow them to deliver services more quickly. However, only 24 percent of the businesses surveyed said they are currently using AI, although 46 percent say they're preparing to use it within the next year. The Squiz report concludes, "This is too slow, using algorithms to generate personalized services and deliver effective cross-selling opportunities is increasingly key to all organizations." The main concerns businesses expressed about AI are'lack of human control/oversight' (36 percent) and'expense' (29 percent).