go through Justin Ireland D. Table, reporter
Contact Center Association of The Philippines (CCAP) revenue and workload is expected at least this year, even as companies increasingly adopt new revenue and work Technology, including artificial intelligencecolor.
“In 2025, we will still expect to grow 5% to 7%,” CCAP President Haidee C. Enriquez said at a pre-match meeting on Wednesday.
Last year, the Contact Center industry booked $31.5 billion in revenue, with 82% of the total revenue in the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry. It also has 1.62 million full-time employees, accounting for 89% of the industry's total workforce.
If a 5-7% increase is achieved this year, the industry's revenue could range from $33.1 billion to $35.42 billion, and its number of employees could range from $1.7 million to $1.73 million.
However, she said the Philippines Information Technology and Business Process Association will review the Philippine IT-BPM industry roadmap's 2028 goals.
“A 5-7% growth is not a goal to re-examine. But we are very confident that we can achieve this,” she said.
She cited an internal survey conducted in its 167 member companies, and she said 100% of companies said they were “some companies”What confidence do they have?” and “confidence” Will achieve their goals.
Ms Enriquez noted that the number of employees has grown slowly due to the adoption of new technologies.
“But that doesn't necessarily affect revenue, just because members are slowly and will certainly get involved in higher value services.”
Tonichi Achurra-Parekh, director of the CCAP board, said that even if more companies adopt new technologies, car lengths may continue to grow in the near term.
“Are we predicting that we will see a decrease in FTES (full-time staff) over the next one to two years? Maybe not. But yes, it will be slower. Other than that, we don't know, just because of the rapid development of the technology.”
She added: “We are now focusing on high-skilling and training our workforce to ensure … we move to high-value, complex types of jobs. We are going to see that this will continue to happen.”
CCAP company secretary Jamesa S. Garcia said UPSKILLING workers will allow contact center companies to transfer to high-value jobs, which will increase revenue.
“Earnings get higher annually because there is more efficiency,” she added.
Following the group's forecast, the contact center industry is estimated to employ between 80,000 and 100,000 employees this year. Last year, that would be below about 110,000 new employees.
According to Ms Enriquez, the company is providing more resources to existing workers.
“Overall, the industry has received 500 million PPES in funding from the Technical Education and Skills Development Agency (TESDA),” she said. “Well, the rest of the hope will come from the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICE).
Ms Enriquez said workers will be trained in new technologies covering areas such as cybersecurity, data analysis, data annotation and medical coding.
challenge
In addition to the talent and skills gap, the contact center field also faces competition from new markets and reappearing markets for IT-BPM services.
“More and more locations are imagining the Philippines…Most of our members actually report that for many people, this is more challenging than ever before.”
These markets include Latin America, the Association of Southeast Asian Countries and Eastern European countries.
“They have discovered gold mines that we discovered many years ago. So, for example, Cairo, like Cairo, and our neighbors like Malaysia and Vietnam,” Ms. Acurra-Parekh said.
“And they are very attractive to the same investors we have so that they (the clients) can go there,” she added.
“Careful optimistic”
Meanwhile, Ms Enriquez said they are closely monitoring the U.S. government’s tariff policy on signals, as the U.S. remains the main source of outsourcing work in the Philippines.
“There are some concerns. So it can be said that we are cautiously optimistic as an industry and that will not have a long-term impact on us,” she said.
She added: “Tariffs are now centered on goods rather than services. However, given the unpredictability on that side of the fence, there may be tariffs later on, which are targeting remote services in the Philippines.”
However, Ms Enriquez said U.S. tariffs on goods have not affected the way the Philippines contact centers do business.
“But we are very careful and cautious,” she added.
CCAP cited historical trends that the industry's growth has dropped sharply from 12.3% in 2016 to 2.5% and 3.9% in 2017 and 2018. Over the years, it coincides with the first term of US President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Trump began his second term in January, disrupting global trade by imposing reciprocity tariffs on most trading partners.
The Philippines faces mutual tariffs of 17%, the second highest rate among Southeast Asian countries.
The United States has stopped reciprocity tariffs until July, awaiting negotiations with trading partners.
But, Ms Acurra-Parekh said that while the tariff policy only covers goods, it could also affect how contact centers in the Philippines serve U.S. customers.
“Indirectly, consumer behavior in the United States will affect the way we provide services,” she said.
Ms. Garcia said: “While we do not produce goods, at the end of the day we serve them.”
