More IT-BPO companies are starting to adopt Intelligent Automation nowadays. More especially that there is an increase of clients’ demands in the industry and for them to remain competitive and viable with clients.
However, with the emergence of Intelligent Automation, there will be a decrease of nine percent or 1.4 million jobs by year 2021 on the global industry of IT services and BPO workers. This is according from a new study conducted by HfS Research.
US, Indian Workforce will be most Impacted
The research shows that the US and Indian services workforce will be impacted the most especially in the low-skilled positions. It is estimated that India will lose 640,000 by 2021. And US will lose 770,000. Workers in low-skilled positions are the ones who are conducting simple entry level, process driven tasks that require little abstract thinking or autonomy.
It is most likely that the routine and repetitive tasks done by low-skilled workers will be replaced by automation.
“We’ve already precisely pinpointed that 30% of routine, low-value positions are being phased out through automation over the next five years, far outweighing the expected new jobs being created in the medium-high skills areas,” Phil Fersht, CEO of HfS Research
These decreases in US and India are largely because there are a large number of non-customer facing roles at the low-skill level.
HfS’ model also predicted that there will be a 14% decline in India. US is expected to suffer with 12% total workforce reduction, and 4% in United Kingdom.
The Positive Side
The Philippines which is known for its location’s reputation for low-cost, high quality services, is expected to be least impacted. This is due to its heavy reliance on voice-based customer support and high-touch healthcare operations.
Moreover, medium-skilled and high-skilled jobs will increase by eight percent and 56 percent. Workers in this jobs are undertaking complicated tasks that require experience, expertise, abstract thinking and autonomy. Philippines, UK and India are to benefit the most from medium/high skills job creation by 2021.
“Nobody’s really seen what automation and robotics will really lead to. There will be some impact of automation but overall we believe that technology adoption will actually lead to more job creation across sectors,” Sangeeta Gupta, Senior Vice President, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom)
In summary, there is no certain outcome yet for the IT services and BPO industry due to Intelligent Automation. And the industry is just hoping that it will not have a huge negative impact.
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