The English proficiency and technical know-how of Filipinos give the Philippines an edge over other Asia-Pacific countries in terms of attracting investments from robotic process automation (RPA) firms.
In an interview with the BusinessMirror, UiPath Head of Asean Region Malina Platon said the country’s high GDP growth also makes the Philippines an attractive destination for RPA investments. Platon was in Manila recently for a series of RPA workshops.
“Companies from the RPA industry [would rather] come and invest in the Philippines than other countries, for example Thailand or Indonesia, where it is more difficult from a language perspective,” Platon said.
“Here, we don’t have this issue. Everyone speaks English, are friendly, and also there is a high level technology understanding. So I think these elements create a perfect spot for investment,” she added.
Apart from creating new jobs in the country through investment, Platon said RPAs, or software robots, can help countries in different ways. In Japan RPAs help in improving work-life balance and are assisting senior citizens.
In India RPAs reduce errors, particularly in call centers. This is similar to how RPAs can help companies in the Philippines, which also has a robust business- process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Software robots, Platon said, can also help both small and large companies in other industries because these can be used to improve processes like finance and human resources.
“The Philippines can benefit a lot from the digital wave especially because people in this market have a high appetite for new technologies,” Platon added.
Adjusting to these technologies is one aspect where workers or those about to enter the work force is key in surviving the fourth industrial revolution.
Platon said it is important for workers to retool or for companies to invest in reskilling their work force to adapt to the needs of automation.
She added a recent study showed 16 percent of jobs may be lost due to automation in the country but 32 percent of jobs can be created through automation.
“On one side it will reduce the jobs that are mundane and repetitive but on the other side, it will create more jobs which are focused on creativity or on customer engagement, customer relationship, customer phasing so increasing the level of interaction in both front office and back office jobs,” Platon said.
In an Asian Development Blog, Asian Development Bank Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department Economist Sameer Khatiwada said “doomsday” predictions about the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on BPO jobs are “unrealistic.”
Khatiwada added some estimates claim that anywhere between 50 percent to as much as 90 percent of all BPO jobs are at risk of automation.
He said the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IT-BPAP) had estimated that the share of low-skill BPO workers will decline to 27 percent in 2022, from 47 percent in 2016.
Khatiwada added these positions, such as customer support clerks and data entry assistants, entail process-driven tasks that can be handled by automated processes with relative ease.
Despite this, Khatiwada said the IT-BPAP expects the total number of workers directly employed in the industry to increase to 1.8 million by 2022, from 1.2 million in 2016.