Automation and artificial Intelligence (AI) are known to disrupt the business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines in a negative way, and local and international experts think otherwise, according to a report by the Business Mirror. These experts said the industry should not be scared of what automation could bring to millions of Filipino call center workers.
During the “Technology for Inclusion” forum held at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) weeks ago, Accenture Philippines Senior Managing Director Ambe Tierro shared that according to their research, only 16 percent of jobs will be at risk due to automation, and even though there are results, this doesn’t mean the findings regarding both job losses and job creation during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)—or the age of automation and data exchange, which includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing—can still change and is not set in stone.
Even though the industry has started the “massive implementation” of robotics process automation (RPA), she said that the sector still needs people to “create those algorithms and models, train the models, and eventually interpret the results.” In addition, she said as jobs are lost, there will be new jobs along the way and the key to coping with the technology is to continue “upskilling and reskilling.”
“You never know what will happen in terms of creating new industries and new markets because of these technologies. But I would like to offer, if we are merely focusing on job gains, job losses, we are missing a crucial point because as earlier covered, the most important impact of artificial intelligence is the nature of the jobs and the reconfiguration of those jobs,” Tierro said.
“The soft skills are the hard skills. Communication, discernment with all the fake news you need to have critical thinking able to adapt and to be agile but from a qualification standpoint, there are new job categories being created,” she added.
Automation may be seen as to wreak havoc and disrupt the flow of how businesses in the industry deliver their services, but there is always the bright side of things. Experts explained that there are jobs that can be produced of it since people are still needed to make it work — in simpler terms, having people operate behind the wheel. However, “upskilling and reskilling” are a lot of work, and can cost companies a fortune to start training and change their set of employees. With this, outsourcing is the answer, and Ezy Outsourcing Hub offers outsourcing solutions to everyday business woes along with cost-effectiveness and access to a talent pool of skilled workforce. Call 02-6571872 / +61 419 200 663 or email contact@ezyoutsourcinghub.com to get started.
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