BPO workforce at high risk of AI displacement: NASSCOM chief
PUNE, INDIA — The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is facing a significant threat from the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (AI), according to Rajesh Nambiar, Chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).
Nambiar, who also serves as the chairman and managing director of Cognizant’s India unit, highlighted the vulnerability of BPO employees to being replaced by AI technologies.
During a seminar in Pune, Nambiar pointed out that while the software services industry, which forms the backbone of the Indian tech sector, has less immediate concern, the BPO sector is not as fortunate.
“People who work [in] process-related industry, which we traditionally used to call as BPO (business process outsourcing)… Some of that runs the risk of getting replaced with an AI engine pretty quickly,” Nambiar stated.
The BPO industry, which has evolved from managing simple processes to a $48.9 billion business process management (BPM) sector, is now at a crossroads with the advent of AI.
Nambiar emphasized that the integration of AI into the workforce is inevitable, and those not leveraging AI in their work are at risk of being replaced.
The NASSCOM chief also discussed the broader impact of AI on jobs, particularly white-collar roles that have traditionally been considered safe from automation. He mentioned that generative AI is likely to affect jobs that require significant cognitive effort, such as equity analysts and statisticians, more than manual tasks.
Despite the potential short-term overhype of AI’s capabilities, Nambiar believes its long-term impact is underestimated. He predicts that generative AI will have a profound effect on the workforce and the economy over the next 5 to 10 years.
Nambiar called generative AI a “great equalizer,” suggesting that its benefits are more pronounced where human capabilities are limited.
