PH IT-BPM Revenues Seen Outpacing Workforce Growth Amid AI Adoption

The Philippine information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry expects revenues to grow faster than its workforce as companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to augment human workers, industry officials said Thursday. IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) president and CEO Jack Madrid said industry revenues are expected to reach $42.3 billion this year and $45 billion in 2027, representing a 6.38% growth rate. The workforce, meanwhile, is projected to grow to 1.94 million full-time employees (FTEs) this year and 1.99 million FTEs in 2027, or a 2.57% increase. “Revenue will grow faster than headcount. That’s really direct proof that we’re already beginning to see the positive impact of AI augmenting the value we do, possibly requiring less employees,” Madrid told reporters during a briefing in Parañaque City. “One of the things that automation does is it allows — just hypothetically — the work that used to be done by 100 people, hypothetically, okay, can possibly be done by 70 people, so the value of the work is the same, if not higher, but requiring less people to do it,” he added. IBPAP earlier announced downward revisions to its 2028 revenue and workforce projections, citing AI as one of the risks facing the industry. Madrid said AI is expected to affect all sectors, noting that the Philippine IT-BPM industry is already benefiting from the technology. “I hope that we will find a way to make it augment what we do instead of be left behind, because that’s definitely not the direction we want,” he said. “I think if the IT-BPM industry can be an example of where our jobs, our workflows are augmented by AI and technology. I think that that’s already an additional important role that we can show because AI will affect all jobs,” he added. Meanwhile, executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face are scheduled to brief the United Nations Security Council on Thursday Philippine time amid warnings that advances in AI technology could eventually slip beyond human control and pose risks to international security, Reuters reported. IBPAP said organizations should not wait for formal regulations before adopting responsible AI governance practices. The group also committed to reviewing and updating its Ethical AI Use and Risk Governance Policy Framework as the regulatory landscape evolves. “Responsible AI should not slow innovation. Our objective is to provide organizations with practical guidance that allows them to operationalize AI confidently while preserving the trust that the Philippine IT-BPM industry has earned from clients and partners around the world,” IBPAP president and CEO-designate Celeste Ilagan said. — VBL, GMA News