BPO firms remain unfazed by rise of smart machines

THE Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) expressed that the country’s information technology-business-process management (IT-BPM) industry can handle the challenges of robotics, artificial intelligence and other related technologies.

“You can view the emergence of digital technologies as either a threat, particularly on job creation, or an opportunity,” CCAP Chairman Benedict Hernandez said in a news briefing in Makati City last week. “Our industry certainly sees the upside opportunities in investing in digital technologies to drive enhanced experiences of our clients and customers. In fact, digital capabilities in analytics, robotics, artificial intelligence have opened new opportunities for us to impact CX [customer experience].”

Hernandez added their clients “have started to look to us to help them reimagine and enable their CX strategy in the age of digital”. “These are exciting times for our industry.”

Perceived as a threat by some sectors, Hernandez said the environment in the IT-BPM industry is quite different from its fledgling days in the early- 1990s. At the same time, there are opportunities that can be tapped by the country in the digital age, he explained. Jojo Uligan, president of the CCAP, emphasized there is a big need for Filipino workers to acquire new skill sets, such as technology proficiency, deep industry or domain expertise, problem-solving and analytical skills.

“The nature of work will continue to change, the same way it has changed over generations,” Uligan said. “Rules based, transactional type of work will be the first to be automated, this is already happening today.”

To be relevant in the digital economy, he said Filipinos need to sharpen their analytical skills so they can tackle complex, judgement-based and more exciting tasks.

“I don’t think we should focus the debate on whether jobs will be lost with the emergence of these technologies. Jobs are being transformed and our focus now is the investment needed in upskilling our people,” Uligan explained. Uligan also revealed that the industry will continue to work closely with the government and the academe toward forming an investor-friendly environment and developing the right curricula and programs for the students, respectively.

The CCAP is forecasting their sector will add over 73,000 jobs per year and, by 2022, will grow to almost 1.2 million in employment from 751,000 in 2016.

“We predict about 8-percent annual growth until 2022,” Uligan said. “That takes our revenues from $12.8 billion last year to $20.4 billion in 2022.”

Hernandez and Uligan spoke to promote a forum on CX sponsored by CCAP and Dallas, Texas-based Everest Group. The latter, a consulting and research firm, will present a white paper, titled “Philippines at the Helm of Delivering Customer Experience of the Future”, during the forum.

The IT-BPM industry has been a major contributor to the growth of the economy. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas predicts, that by 2017, the industry will be the Philippines’s largest source of income. From 525,000 employees in 2010 and $8.9 billion in revenue to an expected 1.3 million jobs and over $25 billion in revenue for 2016, it is, to date, the most lucrative and fastest-growing industry in the Philippines.

Source: https://goo.gl/oAsRFL