Chatbot threatens BPO industry
Technology experts, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, are considering chatbots as the next big thing in technology. The technology, however, could affect the booming business process outsourcing industry (BPO) in global leaders India and the Philippines. The India Times has reported that chatbots could spell significant loss of revenues for BPO firms along with the erosion of low end jobs. In anticipation of the growing use of chatbots, BPO industry veterans are now preparing to make up for the loss by migrating to higher end services. Globally, low-end BPO jobs are pegged to be anywhere between 5-6% of the overall revenues of the industry. A study conducted by HFS research showed that about 20% of legacy low-value IT services and BPO jobs will be phased out over the next 5 years.
