The IT-business process management (IT-BPM) industry announced a $40-billion revenue target for 2024.
IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines president Jack Madrid said the continued skills development and investments would drive the sector’s growth.
“Of headcount, we hope to project 1.84 million employees and with a little bit of luck for the first time in history, we will touch $40 billion in revenue. It’s an ambitious number that is really quite a pivotal time in our history,” Madrid said.
Instrumental to the industry’s continuing growth is its new campaign on rebranding that seeks to put the Philippines as the top of the global IT-BPM industry.
The country remains the top 2 destination on voice services, next to India. Madrid said amid the global challenges, the industry association would be happy to keep its ranking, but efforts to improve this segment of the IT-BPM may give India a run for its money.
He said the industry seeks to greatly improve talents to raise the level of excellence in providing niche services.
“Despite the arrival of generative AI [artificial intelligence], we see that voice will be a premium service that only we can efficiently provide. That is what we hope for,” Madrid said.
Industry association head of research and AI Dominic Ligot said about 45 percent of industry players started experimenting on AI and 20 precent were using basic AI, mostly as agent assist to process calls faster.
The industry, he said, has yet to assess how many jobs were lost to AI in 2023.
“We’re actively monitoring AI. We need to cover risks. There has to be regulation, but one that does not curtail innovation. This has to be discussed and brought up to tech communities,” he said.
Ligot said the rebranding effort of the industry would help raise awareness that a BPO job is not something to be ashamed of.
He said the industry rebranding would help attract more qualified professionals in the IT-BPM industry especially for more technical skills on the healthcare and financing space.