Artificial intelligence takes over some call center tasks in PH

by Othel V. Campos, Aug 30, 2017

The Philippine contact center industry expects to sustain an 8-percent annual growth over the coming years, despite the growing popularity of artificial intelligence that began to take over simple voice services.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines said to sustain the expansion and achieve the goals under the industry roadmap, there was a need to focus on growth drivers such as human resource, finance and banking, performance management, data management, analytics, legal and marketing.

CCAP chairman Benedict Hernandez said simple voice services could fall under certain automation procedures.

AI adoption and its impact on contact center operations would be among the highlights of the upcoming Contact Island event on Oct. 11 to 12 at Shangri-La Boracay Resort and Spa in Boracay Island.

“Automation is not a thing of the future. It is happening now. A study by the Everest Group showed that from 47 percent of total voice services, simple tasks will become 20 percent by 2022. The mid-skilled to high complex tasks will take its share as combined 73 percent,” Hernandez said in a news briefing Wednesday in Makati City.

He said repetitive tasks like office directory calls or simple digital or computer tasks could be relegated to artificial intelligence.

Hernandez said more contact centers had started shifting simpler tasks to AI, but employees also began moving up to positions requiring better skills and analysis.

“We’re going to keep growing and maintain our position as the top destination for voice services because we’re moving up to higher level of services that what most industries are looking for,” he said.

The Philippines and India are two of the preferred large scale geographies for the global voice and contact service industry.

North America is still the biggest geographical client of the Philippines for voice services, representing about 72 percent of the clientele profile. Its share, however, has steadily declined in the last five years.

Asia Pacific is second biggest market with 15 percent, followed by Europe with 11 percent and the rest of the world with 2 percent.

CCAP expects the Philippine contact center industry to keep an 8-percent growth year-on-year. Under the roadmap, contact centers are expected to have 1.2 million jobs and total revenues of $20.4 billion by 2022.