Government plans impact sourcing initiatives to counter AI threat to jobs
The Philippine government believes that many call center workers are likely be displaced by the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in the coming years. In response to this threat, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) are planning early action to help recalibrate the skills of such workers to keep them employable as AI is steadily introduced into business operations. The plan is to implement impact sourcing initiatives that would reallocate workers into different levels of labor. Under the proposal by the DTI and DICT, about 480,000 unskilled workers will be hired to handle low-skilled work; some 525,000 low-skilled workers will be tasked to do mid-skilled work; while about 310,000 mid-skilled workers will do high-level tasks. DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said this initiative will be a first of its kind in the world.
