English skills alone won’t protect local BPO from AI – Sutherland
The Philippine workers’ command of spoken English will not protect the industry from the effects of artificial intelligence and automation in the next five years. This was the forecast of Rajneesh Tiwary, chief delivery officer at Sutherland Global Services. The Philippines needs to prove to the world it has more to offer than just a pool of English-speaking talent. BPO executives said the country has to take on high-value outsourcing jobs in research and analytics and turn the headwinds from Artificial Intelligence into an opportunity. By 2022, the Philippines’ share of the global outsourcing pie is estimated to reach about USD250bn. The key would be to ensure workers are trained in areas like data analytics and data mining, among others.
