Customer Experience

New York – October 05, 2026 -- Slang AI has launched Superhost, a voice AI platform the company calls the industry's first conversational, memory-aware hospitality agent built for full-service restaurants, moving beyond scripted bots to handle calls in 97 languages while recognizing returning guests and their preferences.

Superhost replaces scripted voice bots with a memory-driven conversational agent

Unlike prior voice AI limited to basic reservation handling, Superhost recalls prior conversations, visit history, allergies and birthdays, and can detect emotional tone in guest speech, responding differently to an exasperated 'ok' versus a delighted one. The system also handles mid-sentence interruptions and changes of mind, aiming to replicate the fluid back-and-forth of an experienced floor host.

San Francisco – – October 02, 2026 -- EvaSpeaks has launched an omnichannel AI agent platform designed to convert phone, web and email inquiries into booked appointments and CRM-logged opportunities before customer interest fades.

AI agents qualify prospects and book appointments across phone and web channels

During live phone and website conversations, EvaSpeaks agents draw on company-approved knowledge to answer questions, identify intent, qualify prospects, check availability and schedule appointments. Connected tools allow agents to create or update CRM leads, open support tickets, schedule follow-up or transfer callers while preserving full conversation context.

Miami – October 01, 2026 -- OutRival, creator of AI-powered Digital Workers, has appointed Shaun Sjolin as Chief Customer Officer to oversee customer relationships from onboarding through the full customer lifecycle.

Sjolin brings enterprise contact center expertise from NICE to OutRival's growth strategy

Sjolin joins from NICE, a global contact center software provider, where he served as Vice President of Customer Success managing large enterprise accounts across travel, hospitality, retail, healthcare, insurance, utilities, and infrastructure sectors. His prior roles include leading enterprise customer journeys at SAP, IBM, and Aon Hewitt.

Lincoln, Neb. – September 30, 2026 -- Assurity has appointed Draper Daniel as Vice President of Customer Connections, placing him in charge of the insurer's customer service operations and experience strategy.

Daniel brings 28 years of insurance industry leadership to the role

Daniel has spent more than 28 years in the insurance sector, with a track record in operational leadership and business transformation. He has previously managed large customer service organizations and led high-performing teams focused on operational improvement.

Assurity executive cites fit with company's continuous improvement culture

Tara Benson, Assurity's Senior Vice President of Operations, said Daniel's experience combining people, process, technology and strategy would help the company evolve how it serves customers and distribution partners.

Draper, Utah – September 29, 2026 -- FirstDigital has surpassed 500 five-star Google reviews, achieving an overall 4.4-star rating that the fiber internet provider says outperforms most locations run by major national competitors in the same markets.

Customer outages get resolved within hours, not days

Customer Mary Tipton reported that after a series of power outages knocked out her fiber connection, a FirstDigital representative created a high-priority service ticket and restored her service within hours. Longtime customer Vance Hawkins, who has used the service for twelve years, said downtime has been "practically nonexistent" and that any disruptions were typically resolved within minutes.

Sydney – September 29, 2026 -- Metcash, Australia's leading wholesale distributor to independent grocery, hardware and liquor retailers, has expanded its partnership with Coveo (TSX: CVO) to embed AI-powered conversational search into its B2B customer communications platform, AskROSS.

Metcash adds generative AI to AskROSS to speed retailer self-service

The deployment replaces traditional keyword-based search with conversational search that interprets query intent, allowing independent retailers using the AskROSS portal to resolve routine issues without contacting support staff. Coveo will also surface the same guidance within the agent-facing experience, aiming to help Metcash support teams assist customers more efficiently.

New York – September 25, 2026 -- Trustpilot has launched dedicated Product Review Pages along with expanded Location Reviews, AI Search Market Insights, and a beta version of Trustpilot AI, targeting businesses seeking greater visibility in AI-driven search and shopping tools.

Research shows product-level pages lift AI citation rates by 12 percentage points

Independent analysis by Seer Interactive found that Trustpilot was the most frequently cited review website across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and Gemini. The same research found that businesses using dedicated Product Review Pages achieved brand citation visibility 12 percentage points higher than those relying solely on a company profile page.

Portland, Ore. – September 24, 2026 -- Nearly half of all calls to US businesses -- 47% -- occur outside traditional Monday-to-Friday working hours, according to new call data from AnswerConnect covering 5,906,476 minutes of call logs between April and June 2026.

The finding indicates a widening gap between when companies operate and when customers actually try to reach them, with businesses that limit availability to standard hours risking missed leads, sales, and referrals to competitors who answer around the clock.

One customer converted four after-hours calls into roughly $200,000 in business

AnswerConnect reported that a single client generated approximately $200,000 in return from just four calls, illustrating how a small number of captured after-hours conversations can carry outsized commercial value.

Gaithersburg, Md. – September 24, 2026 -- DRB Group will launch two mortgage joint ventures in January 2027, pairing its DRB Homes and DRB Elevate 55+ brands with regional lending partners Acrisure Mortgage and Alta Home Lending.

DRB Group splits U.S. mortgage strategy into east-west joint ventures

The homebuilder will operate DRB Mortgage with Acrisure Mortgage across its eastern markets, while DRB Home Loans will serve western buyers through Alta Home Lending. Both platforms are scheduled to go live in January 2027, aligning financing with DRB's national homebuilding footprint.

Las Vegas – September 22, 2026 -- GMA Consulting has appointed Alisa Mirabal and David Robins as Senior Advisors, adding operational expertise in casino marketing technology and hospitality management to its client-advisory bench spanning public gaming companies, tribal operators, banks and government agencies.