The field of switchboard operators suffered the sweep of the 'AI tsunami'

A year ago, Bernie was an employee at a service call center in the Philippines, secretly using ChatGPT to help reduce the pressure on the operator. However, now this AI is threatening his job.

Bernie said that he often has to listen to the phone calls of irritable, impatient customers. He describes some conversations as a battle when guests complain about their problems.

The field of switchboard operators suffered the sweep of the 'AI tsunami' Picture 1

When tools like ChatGPT and Bing became popular in late 2022, Bernie quietly used the tool for work. He asked the chatbot to create convincing, empathetic answers to common complaints. And ChatGPT does it all.

Not only Bernie but many of his other colleagues also try and gradually depend on AI. Sometimes, naive responses that have nothing to do with the customer's problem are also given and sent by this tool.

ChatGPT and Bing Bernie now use to translate all technical information in less than five minutes, doubling performance. However, the problem is that the customer of his company, a large customer experience company in the US, forbids agents from using artificial intelligence in their work.

The Philippines is considered as one of the world's largest centers for outsourcing services (BPO), with a revenue of 29.5 billion USD, equivalent to 7.5% of the country's GDP in 2021. This country is the go-to place for many big companies in the world to hire services such as call center, content moderation.

Mon Ibrahim, a former official with the Philippine information and communication technology agency, said AI could displace workers and upset job growth in the BPO industry in the next five years if they don't upgrade their capacity.

The AI ​​Council has been established in the Philippines to bring together industry-leading experts to build skills for BPO employees so they can do higher-value work that has not yet been reached by AI.

Ibrahim said that, without using AI for projects, businesses will find it very difficult to compete, but using it will make workers unemployed. Therefore, workers and businesses must adapt and move forward.

Kareem Winters

Update 24 July 2023