Is AI Outsourcing’s Biggest Threat or Opportunity? With Daniel Duggan of Acquire AI

Perhaps no technological innovation has rocked the world so heavily as the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI). Within months, it seemed every company had an AI-related product. 

Many organizations were also keen to incorporate AI, seemingly without proper concern of how to implement it effectively.

In this episode of the Outsource Accelerator Podcast, Derek speaks with Daniel Duggan, the Operations Manager of Acquire AI, a branch of Acquire BPO. 

They discuss Acquire’s AI consulting division, the contemporary reaction to AI, and how the customer support scene looks going forward. 

Acquire AI

Daniel starts by giving us a rundown of the main company, Acquire BPO. The firm has been around since 2005. 

“[We’re] located predominantly in the Philippines from an operations center perspective, but [we] have an operational footprint in Australia, the US, and the Dominican Republic. [We’re] heading up towards about 10,000 employees at this stage with definite desires for further growth.”

According to Daniel, Acquire primarily services the knowledge-based roles, but also offers more standard functions. 

“[There’s also] the straight call center agents as well as a mix of co-sourcing or blended resourcing outsourcing, full sort of comprehensive outsourcing, and then some variations thereof.”

However, Daniel’s main focus is in the Acquire AI division. 

“It was born out of conversations with other business owners [who] would come up to Scott Stavretis, our CEO, and say, ‘AI, what do I do? What do I need to do?” 

He describes Acquire AI as, “a consulting partner to businesses that are in need of support through [a] new way of operating.”  

AI on the horizon

While there’s a portion of users who see it as a threat, Daniel draws comparison with the disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The pandemic was initially seen as a real threat to outsourced models of operation. But as it turns out, I think it’s been quite positive for the BPO industry.

The same is what will happen with AI.” 

He believes that many of the fears were simply due to uncertainty in implementation. 

“These conversations were happening [when] people and businesses were not sure how or what to leverage from AI. 

[Now] they’re looking for partners and experts in that area to help with that transition to a new way of business.”         

Acquire AI is willing to help with that. Daniel acknowledges that people have only just begun to realize the technology’s implications.

“It’s actually not a silver bullet or a simple solution. These things are systems, they are changes to organizations. 

There’s a lot of work to get AI working. There’s a lot of work to keep it working. And so what we wanted to bring was that level of expertise to help businesses evaluate, understand, roll out, and educate.”    

Keeping up with new tools 

Of course, Daniel understands that the technology isn’t perfect, and that despite the initial excitement, it’s a challenge to get people to accept AI. 

He recalls a study regarding chatbots and customer satisfaction, finding that the human touch was still sought after. 

“[It was] found that 70 percent of consumers would be likely to consider a different brand based on a bad AI chatbot experience. 

The rest of that research highlighted how important human support still is.” 

Still, new advancements are being made every day, and Daniel has to continuously keep up with the rate of change.

“It moves very fast [and] there’s a lot of the same. So I guess it’s about picking what’s a little bit different.” 

Daniel gives his advice for those entering the fold. 

“Don’t dive in. It’s a change. And when you change your business, you’ve got to do it right. 

But at the same time, you don’t want to be left behind. So be measured, but move forward.” 

You may visit Acquire’s AI consulting branch here. The main website is Acquire BPO, and feel free to reach out to Daniel Duggan as well via his LinkedIn profile.