One of the questions I’ve always asked myself is how AI will ultimately impact the BPO industry—especially in countries like India and the Philippines, where BPO is such a significant economic pillar.

At first, I was convinced that this technology would inevitably lead to substantial job cuts. After all, BPOs typically handle the “dirty work” that companies prefer not to manage internally—tasks that are outsourced, often offshore, far from the company’s home market, as is the case for many U.S. corporations.

So my assumption was simple: as AI automates more processes, the volume of human work would decline.

But this morning, a Nikkei article made me reconsider. It cited data showing sharp increases in hiring in India and the Philippines driven by what is being called a “hybrid approach”—essentially, employing people to correct the errors that AI systems still make.

And in fact, this could turn into a growth catalyst rather than a drag on the industry. Human oversight of AI agents, along with service centers dedicated to monitoring performance and quality, will become essential. It is very plausible that BPOs will be the ones delivering these functions.

Another example comes from autonomous vehicles. It’s true that self-driving cars may reduce jobs for taxi or Uber/Grab drivers, but they will also create entirely new tasks—such as remote supervision, control centers, and real-time incident monitoring—that can be outsourced to specialized BPOs. The nature of the work will evolve, not disappear, and new operational layers will emerge around these technologies.

- SL