BPO industry targets up for review due to rapid technological change

By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Senior Reporter

THE IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said it expects to update the projections contained in its information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry roadmap, citing the rapid pace of change due to artificial intelligence (AI).

“As of 2026, we are meeting our baseline projections,” IBPAP President and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan R. Madrid said during the AI & Skills Summit on Monday.

The roadmap for IT-BPM, also known as the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, projects staffing of 2.5 million and revenue of $59 billion by 2028. In 2025, industry headcount was 1.9 million, while revenue grew to $40 billion, IBPAP said.

“We’re not going to rest on our laurels because technology is changing faster than we can ever imagine,” he noted. “In fact, this has caused us to refresh our roadmap after three years, and our projections will be shared in a couple of weeks.”

AI has been disrupting the industry by automating repetitive and voice-based jobs.

Mr. Madrid said the Philippines should aspire to be among the world’s best AI-augmented workforces.

“That will require continuous learning, stronger institutions, deeper technical capability, ethical governance, and a leadership that is willing to move with urgency,” he said.

“In the AI economy, learning velocity becomes an economic advantage,” Mr. Madrid said.

Despite the rise of AI, Mr. Madrid noted the importance of human judgment in decision making.

“We have all heard of the term ‘human-in-the-loop.’ But we need to think bigger than that. What the world needs is humans-at-the-core of trust, judgment, governance, and all decisions that matter the most,” Mr. Madrid said.

Management Association of the Philippines President Donald Patrick L. Lim noted that AI cannot replace soft skills like creativity, adaptability, and English fluency.

“We are relationally intelligent. The Filipino capacity for human connection, for work, family, and building trust across cultures is precisely what the most advanced AI systems still cannot accomplish,” he told the forum.

As AI takes over manual, repetitive tasks, IT-BPM firms must advance to higher-tier outsourcing — handling more complex and knowledge-intensive work, Mr. Lim said.

He cited the need for companies to train employees on human relational skills, critical thinking and problem solving.

“What’s scary is when humans accept AI as the final source without undergoing any critical thinking,” he said on the sidelines of the forum.

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) said it is supporting workers at risk of displacement due to AI, such as BPO employees and returning overseas Filipino workers affected by the Middle East war.

TESDA said it is leveraging enterprise-based training authorized by Republic Act No. 12063 or the Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act, which seeks to align industry needs with the available skills, TESDA Deputy Director General Galo B. Glino III told the forum.

He noted that IBPAP member firms have registered 85 enterprise-based education and training courses to date.