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A new NYT Strands puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing 'today's game' while others are playing 'yesterday's'. If you're looking for Thursday's puzzle instead then click here: NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, June 19 (game #473).

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of Wordle, Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints.

Want more word-based fun? Then check out my NYT Connections today and Quordle today pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's Wordle today page for the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Strands today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

• Today's NYT Strands theme is… Just a dusting

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system.

• BABE
• BOAT
• MOAT
• CHIN
• CLING
• SING

• Spangram has 7 letters

First side: right, 5th row

Last side: left, 5th row

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

The answers to today's Strands, game #474, are…

• BABY
• COCOA
• BLASTING
• BAKING
• CHILI
• TALCUM
• ITCHING
• SPANGRAM: POWDERS

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

ITCHING powder was a constant threat throughout my childhood. Along with quicksand and killer bees it was one of those things that comics, films and TV shows suggested would be far more widespread than it actually was – which, of course, was not widespread at all. To the extent that I do not know anyone who was actually dosed with it.

I have far more direct experience with all of the other POWDERS in today's Strands, apart from BLASTING. I don't actually know what that is, but I suspect that unlike COCOA, BAKING or CHILI it is not something you'd want to put on food (and unlike TALCUM or BABY, definitely not on a body!)

How did you do today? Let me know in the comments below.

• SCENERY
• GAMES
• PLAYLIST
• MOTEL
• PHOTOS
• AUDIOBOOK
• SPANGRAM: ROAD TRIP

Strands is the NYT's not-so-new-any-more word game, following Wordle and Connections. It's now a fully fledged member of the NYT's games stable that has been running for a year and which can be played on the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.

I've got a full guide to how to play NYT Strands, complete with tips for solving it, so check that out if you're struggling to beat it each day.

There’s a shift happening in global outsourcing. It’s no longer just about reducing costs, it’s about how businesses access talent and deliver specialist services at scale. That’s where Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) comes in. While BPO is already well established across sectors like customer service and finance, KPO is quickly gaining ground by applying the same industrialized approach to professional expertise.

Think legal research, fraud investigations, graphic design or medical diagnoses – processes that rely not just on execution, but on judgment. This is where KPO stands apart. From process to judgment

BPO is built on repeatability. Contact centers, finance operations, procurement and IT support all thrive when standardization is possible. These services are typically delivered by a well-trained, entry-level workforce supported by workflow tools and quality assurance mechanisms. KPO, by contrast, starts with expertise.

Rather than training staff into a process, it leverages qualified professionals from day one (engineers, lawyers, doctors, designers) and industrializes their output. But this shift introduces new challenges: how do you create a repeatable model for work that depends on professional judgement?

How do you ensure consistency when the answer isn't always clear-cut? This is the critical leap KPO must make: turning judgment-based work into a reliable, scalable service that can deliver consistent results at pace. And it requires a different approach to quality control, onboarding and process design.

The benefits of getting it right are significant. KPO allows organizations to access hard-to-find skills at a global level, often at a price point far below what would be possible locally. It offers the ability to scale operations predictably, tapping into a talent base that includes highly educated, underemployed professionals in emerging markets like South Africa.

Just as BPO unlocked growth by handling routine tasks more efficiently, KPO enables businesses to scale specialist services without growing internal headcount. From claims processing to legal support, creative work to technical analysis, KPO brings scarce skills into a structured, cost-effective model. More importantly, it also supports business agility. By industrializing knowledge tasks, companies can respond faster to changing demands, launch new services more quickly and maintain quality across geographies.

While automation has disrupted many areas of BPO, KPO is less susceptible to replacement by machines. Why? Because it relies on human judgment. That said, AI still plays an important role. From document summarization to workflow optimization and quality control, AI enhances the KPO model rather than displacing it. It can support professionals by surfacing insights, flagging inconsistencies and helping scale oversight processes that would otherwise be manual and inconsistent. Used wisely, AI becomes a co-pilot for knowledge workers – not a substitute.

Industries experiencing the most growth in KPO include legal, medical, insurance and financial services. Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) now handles vast amounts of documentation, reviewed offshore and signed off by local attorneys. In healthcare, digital providers are leaning on offshore professionals for diagnostics, exception handling and patient queries.

Insurance and fraud management also benefit, where complex workflows combine documentation, analysis, and customer interaction. These aren’t pure back-office functions. They often straddle voice and non-voice roles, requiring hybrid capabilities and end-to-end ownership of a case, rather than a single transaction.

The global outsourcing landscape has undergone a significant transformation. What once revolved around basic contact center functions and collections has evolved into a model of full-case ownership. Today’s agents are not just answering calls - they are processing, consulting, resolving, and managing customer journeys from start to finish.

In collections, this shift has fostered long-term client relationships, with cases managed over extended periods using workflow tools, CRM systems, and deep domain expertise. This model is now being applied to areas such as fraud support and customer retention, driven by the same foundational infrastructure.

As KPO matures, South Africa has a real opportunity to become a leader in this space. Its strong education system, English fluency, and growing BPO sector makes it an ideal launchpad for specialized global services.

As digital services become more standardized, the demand for specialist human expertise will only continue to grow. By applying structured processes to complex judgment-based tasks, it’s possible to scale without compromising on skill - unlocking opportunities for professionals worldwide to engage in meaningful, high-impact work. The next era of outsourcing is already here - and it’s more intelligent, nuanced, and human than ever before.

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