FORMER senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino yesterday urged the government to provide support to business processing outsourcing (BPO) workers or call center agents to help them cope with the rising number of companies using artificial intelligence (AI).
Aquino said the government can come up with training and support programs for BPO workers so the industry may boom once again.
He noted reports that the number of industry workers is decreasing since Ai technology is slowly taking over their jobs.
“We can have a hearing about this and raise the problem. At one point, the BPO industry was a pillar of the economy. Now, we’re seeing it slip away,” Aquino said.
Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada has filed Senate Bill No. 2930, or the proposed Artificial Intelligence Training for Government Workforce Act, which seeks to introduce a specialized AI training program for specific government personnel.
“Skills gap is one of the challenges of the workforce, especially with the rise of generative AI. Government agencies must therefore start training and enhancing the capabilities of civil servants when it comes to AI,” Estrada said.
Under Estrada’s proposed measure, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) shall formulate and lead an AI training program which will cover how AI works and its core concepts, its benefits for the government, potential risks like discrimination and privacy issues, future AI trends to include national security and innovation concerns, and provide risk mitigation strategies for safe and trustworthy AI.
The training, which will be included in the national budget, shall be conducted at least every two years.
Employees who shall undertake the training are those involved in program management, planning, research, development, engineering, testing, quality control, procurement, logistics, cost estimation, and others designated by the agency head for AI training.
