Amid delays in government approvals for employee upskilling projects, members of the Customer Xperience Association of the Philippines (CXAP), formerly the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), have proceeded with their digital learning initiatives on their own, saying the shortage of AI talent is constraining the growth of the sector, which accounts for the bulk of the Philippine information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry.
This was emphasized by XCAP officials led by its president Haidee Enriquez and directors Julian Valenzuela and Tonichi Achurra Parekh during a press conference Monday, June 8.
“Lack of talent is impeding the growth of the industry,” said Enriquez.
According to Enriquez, by the government allocated PHP5.5 million to support learning plans submitted by industry players through the Enterprise Business Engineering and Development program until 2025. However, of the 50 digital upskilling plans submitted by various enterprises, only four have been given a “notice to proceed.”
As a result, industry players have been funding their digital upskilling programs from their “own pocket,” while hoping to receive government reimbursement later.
Enriquez, who is also CEO of Microsourcing and Beepo, acknowledged that displacement of entry-level jobs is occurring, particularly for routine, script-based, and purely transactional roles. However, she noted that the new jobs being created by AI have received less attention.
In fact, she said there are around 100,000 job openings in the sector. “So, it is not about jobs lacking, but about lack of skills necessary to assume those roles that clients require,” she said.
Among the emerging functions are tasks related to marketing, procurement and supply chain management, CX consulting, customer journey mapping (CJM), and IT-enabled and AI-augmented business processes. At the same time, traditional services such as contact centers, finance and accounting, human resources, industry-specific BPM, and trust and safety continue to mature.
New job roles are also emerging, including Gen AI Maintenance Officer, Prompt Engineer, AI Trainer or Supervisor, AI Content Strategist, CX AI Solutions Architect, and AI Ethicist.
Valenzuela, who is also president and CEO of Visaya KPO, said contact center firms can now focus more on their domain expertise, leveraging the Filipino brand of service characterized by ingenuity and empathy.
With automation taking over routine tasks, Valenzuela said companies need to double down on domain expertise.
Based on CXAP data, the number of full-time employees (FTEs) in the contact center sector grew by 4 percent to 1.68 million nationwide in 2025 from 1.62 million in 2024. This translates to more than 60,000 new jobs created during the year. The sector is forecast to expand further by about 2.8 percent to 1.73 million employees in 2026.
The contact center-business process management (CC-BPM) sector accounted for about 89 percent of the total workforce of the Philippine IT-BPM industry in 2025. The broader industry employed approximately 1.89 million workers in 2025, up 3.7 percent from 1.82 million in 2024. Total industry employment is projected to grow by another 2.6 percent in 2026.
In terms of revenue, the CC-BPM sector posted annual growth of 6.94 percent to USD33.9 billion in 2025 from USD31.7 billion in 2024.
Revenue is expected to increase by another 5.31 percent to USD35.7 billion in 2026, driven by the continued adoption of AI technologies in business processes despite economic headwinds arising from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, uncertainties in local politics, and shifting policies and regulations in Western countries.
The sector remains optimistic about achieving the targets outlined in the IT-BPM Industry Roadmap. It aims to reach annual revenue of USD49 billion by 2028, while the broader IT-BPM industry is targeting USD59 billion in annual revenues by the same year.
Workforce growth in the CC-BPM sector is projected to reach 2.3 million FTEs by 2028, accounting for the bulk of the IT-BPM industry’s target workforce of 2.5 million.
Notably, Enriquez said workforce growth has been running at 3 to 5 percent annually, slower than revenue growth of 5 to 10 percent. However, she noted that the value generated by Philippine operations has increased, translating to about USD21,000 in revenue per FTE for a CX company operating in the country.
While the premium for Philippine-based services has increased, Enriquez said the country remains competitive compared with India, where revenue per FTE averages around USD30,000.
