AI use ‘mostly positive’ despite decline in IT-BPM staffing levels

THE Information Technology & Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry reported the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI), describing the development as “mostly positive” while acknowledging that worker numbers fell in some companies.

According to Jack Madrid, chief executive officer and president of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), “The impact of AI on operations has been mostly positive, with companies reporting improvements in productivity, operational efficiency, service quality, and revenue generation.”

In a speech at the 16^th International IT-BPM Summit 2024 Wednesday, Mr. Madrid said, however, that 8% of the members surveyed reduced their workforce because of AI.

“Let’s not kid ourselves. Some jobs will change and will be lost — repetitive routine tasks like data entry and basic customer inquiries,” he said.

On the whole, he added, AI is here to stay but it is not yet negatively impacting the industry.

Mr. Madrid said jobs have not been affected for most members, “with one-fourth saying jobs have changed, and another fourth saying that heavy upskilling is still going to be a requirement.”

“We’re going to come close to two million (in staffing) next year. So, let’s all work on our skills so we touch two million in 2025,” he said.

Along with the $38 billion revenue target, the industry is projecting 1.82 million employees by the end of 2024, up 7%.

Some 67% of the members surveyed are already using AI in customer service, data entry, and quality assurance, though challenges persist.

These include cost of implementation, integration with legacy systems, data privacy, and the lack of talent.

“Whether you know how to prompt or not, you also have to understand your data… At the same time, when you want to do deeper integration, you need people with AI engineering, IT, software engineering. These become more in demand as you integrate AI,” Dominic Vincent D. Ligot, head of AI and research at IBPAP told BusinessWorld.

“We don’t have a labor pool that can train the future AI users. I think… we need to beef up the teacher pool. Your multiplier effect (depends on it) if you want to do gen AI,” he said.

Mr. Ligot said the 8% of members reporting staffing declines represent “the first indication that people are getting displaced by AI.”

“In terms of the actual numbers, we’ll only know over time. But I think that factors into the tapering of the growth rate,” he said.

“Going into 2026, the expectation is for that growth rate to continue to taper. Although we’re continuing to grow, percentage wise, the growth rate is going to be more modest,” Mr. Ligot added.

He also said that workers should always be on the lookout for new skills, adding that AI automates tasks, not jobs. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante