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Philippine Outsourcing Industry Braces For AI (reuters.com)
The outsourcing industry in the Philippines, which has dethroned India as the country with the most call centers in the world, is worried that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will eat into the $23 billion sector. From a report: AI-powered translators could dilute the biggest advantage the Philippines has, the wide use of English, an industry meeting was told this week. Other AI applications could take over process-driven jobs. The Philippines' business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is an economic lifeline for the Southeast Asian nation of 100 million people. It employs about 1.15 million people and, along with remittances from overseas workers, remains one of the top two earners of foreign exchange. "I don't think our excellent command of spoken English is going to really be a protection five, 10 years from now. It really will not matter," said Rajneesh Tiwary, chief delivery officer at Sutherland Global Services.
Maybe they could implement a comprehensive, mandatory and free basic education system
They already have that. The literacy rate in the Philippines is 96.3%, which is about the same as the rest of Southeast Asia.
The amount of workers leaving the country to work elsewhere suggests there is lot to be changed and developed within the country.
Many of those expat workers are educated: Nurses in Hong Kong, engineers in Dubai, etc.
Some problems in the Philippines: High birthrate, corruption, dysfunctional legal system, lots of crime, high levels of inequality.