Artificial Intelligence, Is It a Threat in the Outsourcing Industry?

“Knowledge shall increase.”

This passage from the Bible in the Book of Daniel is already witnessed by today’s generation. Imagine how fast the continuous progress of the Internet and modern technology is. Social media, digital and online marketing, influencer marketing, outsourcing customer service… And now, many companies apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce costs in running a business and achieve the agility of the work process.

The robotics and high-technology themes that we used to watch in the movies became possible in our everyday lives. Automated Teller Machines is one of the first outcomes of the advancement of our technology. It was followed by different discoveries using AI, such as Vendo machines and robot vacuums. They were all done before by humans. But now, they can perform without human intervention but through artificial intelligence.

However, there is a negative effect on the emergence of artificial intelligence. Since AI replacing humans turned out to be successful, many people will lose their jobs. One of the industries that will be seriously affected is outsourcing. Outsourcing allows many people to work, particularly in online customer service. Outsourcing customer service is one of the successful industries in the Philippines as many international companies entrust their online customer support teams to the Filipinos.

Through outsourcing, the number of employees increases as the demand from different kinds of businesses is high. One of them is outsourcing in the Philippines. Many Filipinos were given a chance to look for high-paying salary jobs in BPO. And outsourcing became one of the great contributors to the success of the Philippine economy.

But with the existence of AI as one of the helpful methods in business, many people worry if it is a sign that outsourcing for customer service may soon end. Is it for real?

This idea may seem threatening. But delving into the deeper understanding of artificial intelligence, you will be surprised that it would tell a very different story. If it is executed appropriately, Artificial Intelligence will offer an impressive and successful future in the outsourcing industry. It will give opportunities for BPO workers to stay in their jobs while increasing their productivity and competitiveness.

For some people, “Artificial Intelligence” is about robots. But in truth, there’s more than that. AI refers to the application of human intelligence in machines. With the help of the intelligence of humans in science and technology, they can program the machines to think like humans and imitate their actions. It can also be applied to any machine that demonstrates traits and actions associated with a human mind. Since then, disruptive outsourcing has emerged.

Disruptive outsourcing customer service is the counterpart of traditional outsourcing. It involves the use of technological advancements that may include robotic process automation and cloud computing. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is one of the great results of technology. It allows anyone to build software to imitate and incorporate human actions interacting within digital systems and exhibit a business process. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is the delivery of different kinds of services via the Internet, such as data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software.

A BPO expert gave an assurance that there’s nothing to worry about the appearance of artificial intelligence. Some specialists believe that applications of AI enhance the quality of the BPO and call center transactions, and perform more accurately and at a faster pace. The demands and needs of many business aspects, outsourcing for customer service, for example, cannot be replaced by the quality service of human call center agents.

Companies outsource their customer service to achieve two goals — to serve the customer in all aspects and make them happy and satisfied. Providing customers with what they need can be easily fulfilled by using artificial intelligence. But making your customers happy can only be done by call center agents and never by robots. Customers will be happy and satisfied when their problems are resolved. But they can be more glad and satisfied with how they were handled and treated. It can never be done by machines. Even the best technological solutions can never replace the emotional connection between customers and human agents.

So, we can safely conclude that outsourcing customer service is still the best and cost-effective way to run a business, serve the customers, make them happy, and of course, achieve great profits!