Kaila Krayewski

Help! I'm Trapped On a Tropical Island

Disclaimer: Yes, I'm aware that I'm a priveleged white girl who is lucky enough to have financial stability and the means to travel and return to her home country in the worst-case scenario. Yes, I'm aware that people around the world are suffering and dying in droves.

I Moved to a Tropical Island 10 Years Ago and Here's What Happened.

"Sometimes I just feel that your life would be so much easier for you if you just moved back home," texted my well-meaning sister. I'd been lamenting to her about how difficult life is as an expat in Thailand, with a baby and no family to speak of.

I May Live in Paradise, but My Life is Far From Perfect

The sun may shine down on my skin, turning it a beautiful bronze, on a daily basis. The beach may be around the corner, inviting me with its soft white postcard-perfect sand and sparkling turquoise waters. I may live in a place most could only dream of, and often do.

Girls' Guide to Being a Good Friend Abroad

See that girl pictured in the above photo? That's Soph. She's been my lifeline since I started living on Koh Phangan. She's the one I meet for coffee and a catch up...or more often than not, a bottle (or two) of wine and a moan.

I Found Out I Got Knocked Up Abroad, and Here's What Happened

I told my mom she was going to be a grandmother on a Thai street corner next to a girlie bar with bright neon lights and a sign with a high-heeled woman sitting in a martini glass. My friends looked on with proud smiles.

For Those Days When You Just Wanna GTFO

You know those days when you just can't stand the heat? When your go-to shop is fresh out of your daily produce, even though you got there at the same time you always do?

8 Ways Being A Digital Nomad Will Make You A Better Person

I can remember, after a particularly magical trip to Mexico, sitting my parents down and telling them that I was going to quit my extremely well-paying job that I'd gotten straight out of university in the middle of a global recession and backpack around Southeast Asia.

8 Lessons You Learn Living on a Tropical Island in Thailand... - South East Asia Backpacker

A decade or so ago, I decided I wanted to live abroad. Canada just wasn't doing it for me anymore. After trying a few different locales - a tiny island in Japan, big bad Bangkok - I eventually settled on a tropical island called Koh Phangan.

Memoirs of a Gaijin - Teaching in Japan - Road Junky Guides

On a remote Japanese island, a tall gaijin might as well be from another planet. There are some places in this world where one can go and feel completely at home. Where the locals' arms are open and hearts are warm, welcoming new visitors as if they were old friends.

Getting Married Abroad: A bride's guide to keeping your sanity

Before Covid, I got the wedding I'd always dreamed of. I'd met my husband seven years before on Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, and we returned to the Andaman coast to commit ourselves to one another for life seven years later. It was postcard-perfect - everything from the weather, to our guests, to the ceremony, to the exquisite venue.

How AI-Powered Personalisation is Transforming eCommerce

Top learnings from this article Today's eCommerce stores use thousands of internal and external data points to recommend products that complete an outfit based on a user's purchase. The better an AI hits the personal style, fit, trend, the more likely it is that the shop will get a higher share of the customer's wallet.

How to Use NLU

Above is a typical example of a conversation taking place between a human and a chatbot that's been enhanced with Natural Language Understanding technology. As you can see, we expect a lot from our chatbots.

Meet Blended AI

Tracy is in the market for a new tablet. She Googles "the best tablet for me" and checks out a few sites at the top of her personalised results. She decides on the Dell XPS 10, which fits all of her requirements. Next, Tracy heads to the Dell website to look for the tablet there.

The Current State of AI

The current state of AI is a bit of a paradox. On one hand, some experts are comparing AI in its current state to the likes of insects and invertebrates.

Ethics and AI

The air is thick with excitement. After raising a huge sum of capital for your start-up, you've just doubled the size of your team. Everyone has gathered to welcome the new recruits, shaking hands and patting backs, smiles all around. But something isn't right.

How Computers Learn When You're Telling Jokes

My four-month-old son has started giggling. At first, it started with the hint of a smile, probably an expression he made by mistake. Quickly, it has evolved into a full-blown grin that lights up his chubby cherub cheeks, accompanied by sweet little chuckles that seem to surprise even him.

We Need To Talk About The Reader Experience (RX)

We hear all about the User Experience (UX) and about the Customer Experience (CX), but what about the Reader Experience (RX)?

The Quickest Way to a Successful Writing Career: Learn from the legends I Digital Nomad Writing Club

If you're an aspiring digital nomad writer, here is your blueprint for the first step to take on your journey. It's easy, inspiring, and can be done in just 15 minutes a day. What you'll learn from this article: What you should be ripping off from other people (seriously!)

Want to become a successful writer? Start doing this today.

You're going to hate me for this. I'm sorry, I know it's not what you want to hear. But I have to say it. The number one thing you can start doing to set off on the path towards becoming a remote writer who makes bank...is to start writing. Now.

Can AI Write your Content?

As someone who writes about AI and content writing, I get asked this a lot.

Track Your Metrics: How to Launch Effective Visual Content Campaigns | EyeEm

Visual doesn't have to mean vague. If you've spent time specifically selecting visuals as part of your content campaign, you'll need to know if your selection is effective, and to what extent. Indeed, any clever marketer knows that tracking the ROI of your campaign is key to determining what works and what doesn't.

7 Reasons Why Localized Visual Content Is the Key to Your Brand Success | EyeEm

Global audience preferences have quickly shifted away from traditional platforms to place a strong emphasis on local audio-visual content. Traditionally speaking, advertising came in the form of radio advertising and television commercials and these were the only available platforms on which to sell a brand's product aside from text-based publications.

A Three-Step Guide to Maintaining Your Visual Brand Identity | EyeEm

As the choices that face consumers multiply, the only winners are the brands who remain memorable. Companies like Warby Parker shoot for funky, off-kilter stunts; Nike relies on their rock-solid image as the footwear of champions; Virgin Airlines has Richard Branson - need we say more?

Make Your Brand Visuals Irresistible by Using Video | EyeEm

It's likely that at least once in your life, you have shared a video either with a friend or on one of your social media feeds. And if you haven't shared at least one - we're shocked - as 92% of mobile video viewers share what they view.

How IVAs Will Transform the Customer Experience as We Know It

Top Learnings From This Article: Chatbots tend to operate with a set of fixed, procedural responses, suiting only simple, unambiguous business situations NLP allows IVAs to read and understand the customer's intent -- even when worded differently from the phrasing they trained on The more flexible, intention-led approach taken by

What Is a Co-Bot?

When people think of robots, they often picture a fantastical army of anthropomorphic machines marching down the street, with machine guns for arms and freakishly soulless eyes, in a dystopian future where cars fly and humans are hunted for sport. To those people, I say, maybe it's time to cool it on the Will Smith movies for a while.

How to Build Your Internal CS Automation Experts Team

Top Learnings from This Article: An Automation Experts Team is a team that is responsible for all internal automation at a given company. An internal automation team should have a combination of customer support platform expertise, back-end system expertise, customer support expertise, and a buy-in from management who can make decisions.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants: Far from your average chatbot

Top Learnings From This Article: A first-generation chatbot works off a script. This means it's programmed with a conversation tree, and it knows to respond Y when a customer asks X. IVAs are a huge leap from old-generation chatbots. An IVA can read and understand customer questions using an AI-powered technology called Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Empower Your Team For Great CS

There are some workplaces where the employees show up to work early, are productive, effective, and goal-orientated throughout their workday, going out of their way to make the company's customers happy and coming up with out-of-the-box ideas to resolve problems. Yet, there are companies where the opposite is true: employees

The Current State of Voice Search & Voice Assistants

I learned a lot about voice search capabilities when I was in Scotland for a few months earlier this year. My husband and his family have heavy Scottish accents. And Alexa, well, she struggles with heavy accents.

How AI Will Improve the Employee Experience (EX) This Decade

What you'll learn from this article: Well-trained, informed, integrated employees provide well-above-average customer experience. The service-profit chain establishes relationships between profitability, customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and productivity. Repetitive, monotone work is one of the biggest causes of employee dissatisfaction in the contact centre.

Free Guide: Navigating Customer Service in 2020

Cutting edge research into trends that will improve customer happiness and experience in 2020. We asked CX-futurologist Dr. Nicola Millard as well as European Managing Director at Freshworks - Arun Mani and Customer Service Lead at Superbet - Alina Tirlea on their predictions for customer service.

How Service Quality Impacts Customer Satisfaction (in Telcos)

Top learnings from this article Five factors influence service quality amongst telcos: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibility. Customer satisfaction can be calculated as follows: Service Quality (SQ) = Customer's Perception (P) - Customer's Expectations (E) It costs telcos a lot more when a customer switches providers than it costs the customer themselves.

7 Smart Ways To Improve Customer Service (for Telcos)

Here at ultimate.ai, we devoted all of Q3 to an industry we work closely with: telecommunications. In doing so, we produced a series of articles and an e-book that contained a wealth of knowledge, ideas, tips and advice for how telecommunications companies can improve their customer service -- yes, even now, during COVID.

The Experience Economy

The air has a bite to it that comes with the change of seasons. A vibrant burnt orange leaf floats past you as you zip your jacket up to your chin and shove your chilly hands in your pockets. The warm, caffeine-scented air hits you as you step inside the cafe.

How The Customer Service Experience Will Change Post-COVID

What you'll learn from this article: Customer service agents working from home are frustrated by the isolation that makes it difficult for them to ask colleagues or managers for help. If we don't wrap the right experience around customer service, employees are going to view their job as just a commodity.

Provide 24/7 Service Without Increased Costs

The clock strikes 3:30 am, but Mary isn't even thinking about sleep. She's thinking, instead, about the LED beauty mask that popped up in an advertisement on her newsfeed. Mary clicks on the link, and is taken to the mask's company website.

Thai One On: Sampling the wine scene in SE Asia

Going Solo: The joy of solitary travel

Shopping: Thai style

Queen of the Road: The essential guide for women travellers

Review: Mama Pooh's Kitchen

Best of Haad Salad

New Years' Eve, Ko Pha Ngan

7 Steps to Mastering the Beach Babe Trend: A guide to proper beaching by Kaila

The Many Weird Fruits of Southeast Asia

Rhythm & Sands Party Returns to Koh Phangan

It's a Kind of Magic

Girls' Weekend in Bangkok: Shop, Spa, Savour, Swoon

Bangkok is a fabulous place to be a woman. You can live like a princess for a quarter of what it would cost you in the West. The shopping and fashion is second to none, but you have to know where to look.

The PhanganProject

W for Whimsical

Backpacking Southeast Asia: The Ultimate Packing List

Planning backpacking South East Asia holidays? Travel Fashion Girl, BlondeTraveler, and Graines de Cambodge by Rany Som shows you what to pack and when to pack it. From travel outfits, footwear, and much more, find out your SEA travel essentials!

A New Place to Stay

International Island

The fact that Koh Phangan is home to the world-famous (or "infamous") monthly Full Moon Parties, that draw revellers in hordes that ebb and flow with the tides, has, in turn, created a local community of hardcore partiers and DJs who live-and die-by Phangan's lunar cycle.

Satiate Your Wanderlust This Weekend With These Must-Watch Movies

By Kaila Krayewski "What made you move to Thailand?" I'm often asked. I've lived in this crystal shore-lined, palm tree-speckled country for over a decade now. So long that sometimes I have to scratch my head and take a beat to remember. And then it comes flooding back to me.

Taking on Tibet

Take travel to new heights from the roof of the world

10 Things Backpackers Do But Don't Often Talk About

Forget the Fullmoon

Soaked Down South

Exploring Koh Samui's take on Thailand's new year water festival with Bangkok's leading travel and leisure city magazine.

Cheap Southeast Asia: How to pretend you're rich in Bangkok

A Guide to a Great Girls' Weekend in Bangkok

Personal Bangkok

Memoirs of a Gaijin

The Value of Pai

Around the World with Paul Pattaropol

Travel Different Thailand

I worked as Editorial Assistant on this travel publication for the Royal Thai Embassy, which covered all the ways that travelling in modern day Thailand is unique and fascinating, from bustling city life to the far reaching border towns.

The Secrets to Dating a Thai Guy

Expats vs. Backpackers: Why all the hate?

Koh Samui Travel Guide

Koh Samui travel guide with restaurant reviews for Silkwinds, the in-flight magazine for Singapore Airlines

Bangkok Dance Lessons: 9 styles and where to find them

A Clinic for Bangkok's Poor, Ailing Masses, Backpackers Included

A Street Food Eating Tour of Ratchatewi

Coworkers of the World: Meet Kaila Krayewski

What was your first job? Has it shaped where you are today? If I could pick which previous boss (who will remain unnamed - and no, not my Dad!), I'd advise him to get a mental check-up and take up meditation because he was a douche with a temper (another reason I chose to work for myself)!

I've been a hot mess for the last 2 years, and I finally started to get it together. Here's how.

I really thought that my dad dying of terminal cancer when I was in my early 30s would be the hardest thing I ever had to go through...For a good while at least. Turns out, I was very, very wrong...

A Beginner's Guide To Crystal Energy

By Kaila Krayewski A crystal changed the course of my entire life. I'll never forget that day my mom came bounding down the stairs. The blood having drained from her face, she breathlessly mouthed, "I got it!" A tear tumbled down her cheek. Bankrupt, with a family to feed and with nowhere else to turn, mom...

My Great Unmasking

It's time to cut the bullshit. When I was in grade 1, I remember my teacher pulling me aside and giving me a special book about worrying, and a journal to write all my anxieties in. I was the only one in the class to receive this extra support.

American Youth Disengaging from Politics

Connecting with China's Online Youth Generation

Children of the Screen are Losing Their Identity

The Rules of Engagement: Doing business in Southeast Asia

Thai lingerie makes its BIFF & BIL debut with a sexy exhibition

Search Engine Tells You What People Really Think

Google and NSA to Probe December’s Cyber Attack

Google Testing Hotel Room Price Feeds in Natural Search

Google May Shut Down Its Chinese Search Engine For Real

HTML 5 is Upon Us

Google Flu Trends real-time Flu Data in 121 US Cities

How to Promote a Blockchain Platform - By Kaila Krayewski |FinSMEs

Guest Post By Kaila Krayewski If you're not in the business of blockchain in all its decentralized, open-sourced greatness, then clearly you've had your head under a rock for the past year. Every tech-savvy mega brain has boarded the blockchain bus, but as any startup business has learned, a solid marketing strategy is necessary to ...

How to Carry Out a Successful ICO - By Kaila Krayewski - CoinSpectator

Projects that raise huge amounts of cash risk diluting the value of their token, resulting in unhappy investors should the ICO not turn out to be a huge success. The need for an ICO rating As no official ICO rating exists in the marketplace, another important aspect for carrying out a successful ICO is to establish a rating system for potential investors to constitute more credibility in the marketplace..

The Price of Transparency: A Crowdfunding Analysis of Revain - By Kaila Krayewski - FinSMEs

Guest Post by Kaila Krayewski Trust. A simple five-letter word with a host of complications. So what does it mean to be trustless? With no central bank, external regulator or slimy system-corruptors, the transparency of blockchain technology is the perfect platform to create a system of genuine, honest reviews regarding products, services and companies.