00:00Can call centers survive the AI revolution?
00:03Over 17 million people are employed in call centers worldwide,
00:08many of them supporting customers in European and US markets.
00:12In India, about 3 million people provide customer support
00:16and other back office operations for foreign firms such as Microsoft, Walmart or Shell.
00:23India and the Philippines are major business process outsourcing markets
00:27with the US taking the lead.
00:30But constant advancements in AI technology
00:32are driving foreign firms to consider cheaper alternatives.
00:36According to the International Monetary Fund,
00:39over 25% of jobs in India are considered to have high exposure to AI.
00:45And call centers in such emerging market economies
00:47risk being replaced by AI-driven solutions.
00:51In the Philippines, nearly 2 million jobs in the BPO sector
00:54are on the line due to the rise of AI.
00:57Major players that first outsourced call centers to Asia
01:01are now relying more on AI tools to cut labor costs,
01:05stay competitive and defend their business models.
01:08But not everyone wants to talk to a bot.
01:11In the US, lawmakers have proposed a bill
01:13to keep call center jobs in human hands.
01:17And researchers predict that the EU could introduce
01:20a right to talk to a human by 2028.
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