Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, January 31 called on the government to help cushion the impact of the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Hontiveros said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) should put safeguards in place for BPO workers who may be affected as more and more companies are now investing in AI.
“Is the BPO industry in trouble too? Does Sec. (Alfredo) Pascual, being at the helm of the DTI, have a plan for when more companies invest in AI instead of workers?
“Malaki ang magiging epekto nito sa ating BPO industry, sa ating ekonomiya, kaya dapat ngayon pa lang handa na ang ahensya sa posibilidad na ito (This will have a big impact on our BPO industry, on our economy, so the agency should be ready for this possibility right now),” Hontiveros said.
US-based technology research firm Gartner projected that call centers could save up to $80-billion if humans are replaced by AI by 2026. Because of this, global tech giants are now experiencing an upheaval, in part because of the surprising acceleration and commercial attractiveness of AI deployments.
Hontiveros noted that the Philippine BPO industry is earning around $30-billion yearly, almost the same amount of revenue brought in by the country’s overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The senator noted, earnings from the BPO companies is one of the country’s import strengths, alongside tourism and OFW incomes.
“If this industry gets into trouble, then dollars become scarce, they become more expensive, and the peso devalues. A pathway to entry into the middle class will also disappear,” Hontiveros said.
Thus, she said, the DTI should launch a stronger campaign to protect the BPO industry and its workers.
"The IT-BPO industry seems to know what it needs to survive and thrive in the time of Chat GPT and, at the conceptual level at least, I think Secretary Pascual does too,” the lawmaker said.
Hontiveros noted that many companies are setting up call centers in the Philippines primarily due to the capabilities of Filipino workers.
“The DTI should constantly highlight the particular care and attention that Filipino workers offer, a kind of service and human connection that no chatbot can ever provide,” Hontiveros said
"I know that Secretary Pascual is aware of the bright prospects and novel risks faced by the IT-BPO industry: I agree with him when he says that current systems of learning are not yet agile enough for our industries to stay ahead of the AI curve. He must make sure that industry is able to directly and quickly influence the offerings of schools,” she appealed.
“Maybe work places themselves should now be the schools, or should at least be supported in defining a continuing education pathway for workers. In that way, workers will always know what sets of skills will enable them to work alongside these intelligent machines, instead of being replaced by them,” the senator stressed.