Digital Disruption A Threat To Country’s IT-BPM Industry
Digital disruption, especially artificial intelligence (AI) or intelligent automation (IA), is a big reality that will impact the Philippine IT business process management (IT-BPM) industry as a whole, said Rey Untal, president and CEO of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP). A 2016 study by consulting firm Everest found that the digital business sector made up 30% of the total global contracts signed, with 70% going to traditional services. However, that situation has now reversed, with 71% digital services and 29% traditional services.
This change has significant implications as to how the IT-BPM sector, the country’s second largest dollar earner, will operate because it is susceptible, said Untal. This is the reason why the IBPAP is updating its 2022 Roadmap to see whether the 8 to 9% growth target is still feasible amid continuing uncertainty and digital disruption threats. Untal said they commissioned Everest to conduct the study to identify the best, worst and likely near-term growth trajectory, with the official results to be released at the Innovation Summit on November 12. The 8 to 9% forecast under the IBPAP’s Roadmap 2022 was issued in 2016, but the industry only grew 2% in 2017 and 5% in 2018.
