ishield.ai introduces Dost for Microsoft Teams

Dost is a AI language assistant for creating bias-free messages

[Press Release] SAN FRANCISCO, September 6, 2022 – On their mission to make online communications safe and inclusive, ishield.ai announced the launch of Dost. Dost app for Microsoft Teams is a writing assistant that guides people with language suggestions to eliminate unconscious bias and toxicity from internal communications.

Dost means a friend. Dost helps people to be conscious about the messages they send by identifying potential incivility such as toxicity, microaggressions, and bias in their messages. Dost discreetly sends a 1:1 nudge to people to review messages that can be deemed non-inclusive, educate the user about the issue, and provide inclusive alternative suggestions.

Dost nudges are private to the individual. Dost does not access any user information and does not store the messages in its system. Dost does not interfere with the message flow, but gently offers suggestions to use more inclusive language. Dost does not share the nudged messages with anyone else in the organisation, not even the admin.

A recent McKinsey study titled “Understanding organisational barriers to a more inclusive workplace” has found that 84% of all respondents have experienced microaggressions at the workplace, which are everyday slights rooted in bias. This is accentuated amongst remote/hybrid working teams. According to workplace research by professors Christine Pearson and Christine Porath, among workers who’ve been on the receiving end of incivility, creativity suffers, performance and team spirit deteriorate, Customers turn away and managing incidents is very expensive. Dost aims to tackle incivility proactively and drive towards greater inclusion.

“We are creating an AI SaaS platform to assist companies in creating inclusive representation across all their communications. We are excited to launch our product, Dost, for inclusive conversations as they happen on platforms like MS Teams.” said Kesavan Kanchi Kandadai, CEO of ishield.ai. “Dost means a friend. The values of a true friend are embodied by Dost too, for instance: Honesty – Dost will tell you the issues in a message the way it is; Trust – Dost does not store any messages or user information”. All customers of Dost start off with a 30 day free trial period and thereafter it costs $25 / User / Year.

“Our global teams are connected by MS Teams. The impact of microaggressions, bias, and exclusion builds up over a period of time, and it is impossible to trace this to a single event. We were looking for an ally that can drive people to be more inclusive in their conversations on an everyday basis. We are glad we found a perfect ally in Dost.” said Satya Sharma CHRO of ToTheNew.

Schedule a demo here – https://getdost.com

Check Dost for MS Teams in Product hunt    https://www.producthunt.com/posts/dost-for-ms-teams 

About ishield.ai

The purpose of ishield.ai is to make online communications safer, inclusive and human. We are creating assistive technology for eliminating bias and incivility from all workplace communications, thus driving towards greater inclusion.

Learn more at https://ishield.ai

Media Contact: Kesavan Kanchi Kandadai

Kesavan is an experienced media and tech professional with a deep expertise in designing and building software for online content, communities and commerce. He helped launch Amazon Prime Video in India and was country head for Symphony Talent.

He is a pioneer in streaming and OTT and has built live streaming platforms for major world sporting events including the Olympics and cricket and football World Cups.

Kesavan has now combined his experience in online content, marketing technologies, talent acquisition software to build ishield.ai – an AI assistant for inclusive brand and organizational communications, where he serves as co-founder & CEO.

As a father to twin children, he’s witnessed how everyone’s lives have moved online for study and work — and his mission, through ishield.ai, is to make those online spaces safe, inclusive and more human for future generations.

Kesavan holds a postgraduate degree in applied statistics and computer science from IIT Bombay.

Originally posted at https://diversity.social/ishield-ai-introduces-dost-for-microsoft-teams/