Over 500 outsourcing execs convene in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — Over 500 top outsourcing executives are now in Cebu for the 17th Contact Islands Conference, which will tackle strengthening the Philippines’ advantage in Customer Experience (CX), thereby achieving the US$59 billion annual revenue target by 2028.

Organized by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), the conference officially opened yesterday July 26, 2023, at the Dusit Thani Mactan and will culminate on July 28, announced CCAP Managing Director Rosario Cajucom-Bradbury in a pre-event press briefing.

According to Bradbury, the Philippines will continue to attract outsourcing jobs as it has carved its name as the “heart of customer experience,” attributing the Filipinos’ natural friendliness, agility, and customer-centric culture.

The local contact center sector has set a yearly annual revenue target of $59 billion by 2028—about $49 billion which is expected from CCAP-member organizations. As an indication of its strength, the sector posted actual revenues totaling $27 billion, accounting for 84 percent of overall IT-BPM industry revenue of $32 billion.

Now with more than 150 member companies, Bradbury expressed confidence that the industry will hit the forecasted workforce growth hitting 2.3 million full-time employees (to be accounted for by CCAP-member firms) out of the 2.5 million employment target of the entire IT-BPM industry by 2028.

Confronted by numerous challenges, particularly the popularity of generative AI which may replace some jobs previously handled by humans, Bradbury assured that the Philippines’ outsourcing industry will continue to provide jobs and even raise the entry-level salary rate, as it continues to impress big and small ticket outsourcing clients all over the world.

“We are confident that the target employment figure will be achieved even with the emergence of generative AI (artificial intelligence). Contrary to common assumptions, our group believes that the new technology will bolster the sector’s productivity instead of threaten jobs. Generative AI can enhance the strengths of our Filipino agents who can then focus on active listening and become more empathetic and engaging when rendering service to our customers,” she explained.

Bradbury said that agents are continuously being upskilled to further equip them with the right knowledge and skills amid the evolving nature of jobs across the sector and the industry.

“Agents can be redeployed and upskilled to make them always relevant to the future business model.”