Is AI killing Call Center Jobs?

What AI is

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. AI can do speech recognition, facial recognition, planning and problem solving.

Businesses, organizations and even the government now use AI to change their processes, operations and systems. Because AI can copy tasks that people do, it has given them big gains in productivity and profitability.

What it means for BPO jobs

The Philippines has been watching this shift, and it will hit the BPO industry hard. Different players in the industry have been looking at how the country should prepare.

AI can augment some of the work done in BPO companies, and the forecast is a massive increase in productivity. Menial, repetitive tasks such as administrative work can be automated, so companies can move people and money to other areas.

According to Dr. Diosdado "Dado" Banatao, the chairman of Philippine Development Foundation, most of the estimated 1.3 million Filipinos working in the BPO industry will be displaced over the next two years by AI technology now being developed for BPOs.

So yes, AI is killing call center jobs.

Where the opportunity is

Maverick Shih, Acer cloud unit president, said: "Humans should not fear AI, as machines need humans to write the computer codes that run them."

That gives Filipino workers a big opening to upgrade and learn the tech skills that will keep them relevant as AI grows.

BPO companies are working with the government to help call center agents move into higher value industries such as healthcare information management, software development and data analytics.

The Philippine government has its own initiatives behind this. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) are working on partnerships that train the country's IT, science and engineering graduates to build AI solutions for the global marketplace.

At Symph we have known this for a long time, and we do what we can as a company to help. We take on projects that train our team in AI and in how to use it in the products we build for our clients.

In image: Geostore, a Disclosure, Monitoring, and Feedback platform we built for tracking PH road projects. It used machine learning to identify the road surface type in road images.

Our team also mentors bootcamps and educational programs on web development, especially for newbies who do not have a tech background.

In image: iHub one-month coding bootcamp taught by our CTO Albert Padin

In image: training we did for Philippine government agencies on how to use Openroads Geostore

We also run AI and machine learning workshops in the community, so developers can learn to use AI in the products and systems they build.

What you can do

• Learn Python and Tensorflow to take part in the coming 4th Industrial Revolution, and make your living teaching machines how to improve human lives.
• Learn design. Human behavior, intuition, emotion and beauty are still too complex for a computer to understand, so we still need people to design experiences.
• Start something new. Get involved in community activities where you can meet like-minded people, exchange ideas and find potential partners. Machines can now talk, but they can't yet think of new ideas or start new things.
• Work in companies that push you to practice a wide range of skills. AI is still highly specialized, and there are many things people can do that machines can't. Work with a team that gives you the chance to learn new things and build new skills.

AI will change whole industries and replace a lot of our jobs. When it does, we will need to create new jobs and new opportunities, and make sure people have the skills for society to succeed. The changes are scary, but they are also our biggest opportunity to make sure these changes are liberating.

If you want to learn more about AI and machine learning (ML), start with how ML works.