The Philippine contact center and business process management (CC-BPM) sector added more than 60,000 jobs in 2025, as companies increasingly embraced artificial intelligence (AI), challenging fears that the technology would lead to job losses.
Employment Growth in 2025
Data presented by CXAP chairman Mitch Locsin at the 10th Contact Islands conference in Cebu revealed that full-time employment in the sector rose by 4 percent to 1.68 million workers in 2025, up from 1.62 million in 2024. The sector is expected to continue expanding, with employment projected to grow by another 2.8 percent to 1.73 million workers in 2026.
Workforce Expansion
The CC-BPM industry accounted for approximately 89 percent of the Philippine information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) sector's total workforce of 1.89 million employees in 2025, a 3.7 percent increase from 1.82 million in 2024. Revenue growth remained robust, with the sector generating US$33.9 billion in 2025, up 6.94 percent from $31.7 billion a year earlier. Revenues are projected to reach $35.7 billion in 2026. Industry leaders said the sector remains on track to achieve the $49-billion annual revenue target outlined in the IT-BPM industry's 2028 roadmap, with employment projected to reach 2.3 million workers by then.
AI Drives New Opportunities
“The employment growth in the CC-BPM sector and even the entire IT-BPM industry in 2025 counters the common notion that AI brings about job displacement,” said Haidee Enriquez, president of CXAP and chief executive officer of Microsourcing and Beepo. According to CXAP, AI is transforming the industry's service offerings and creating demand for higher-value functions. Emerging services include customer experience consulting, customer journey mapping, AI-augmented business processes, marketing support, and procurement and supply chain services. New job roles are also emerging, including prompt engineers, AI trainers and supervisors, AI content strategists, customer experience AI solutions architects, and AI ethicists.
Tech Adoption Accelerates
Results of the CXAP 2026 Executive Survey showed that the adoption of AI, automation and emerging technologies ranked as the third-largest growth driver for CC-BPM firms, behind the expansion of existing client accounts and new client acquisitions. Generative AI emerged as the most widely adopted technology across the sector, followed by predictive analytics and customer experience data tools, conversational AI and chatbots, agentic AI, and robotic process automation.
Skills Gap Remains a Challenge
However, talent readiness remains the industry's biggest challenge in scaling AI initiatives, followed by cost, data quality, change management and client demand. The survey also found that AI and automation skills were the most sought-after competencies in 2025, ahead of digital and IT skills, customer relationship management, data analytics and reporting, and leadership and management capabilities. Locsin said the Philippines has already established strong capabilities in traditional contact center and transactional BPM services, but now has an opportunity to accelerate growth in higher-value and specialized segments. “Traditional high-volume CC-BPM services are evolving toward more specialized, domain-driven support for inbound and outbound customer interactions,” he said.
