Sen. Imee Marcos has asked the Senate to look into the planned use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the services and manufacturing sectors and how it would impact on the country’s human resources, particularly the possible displacement of workers.
In filing Senate Resolution No. 591, Marcos expressed concern over the imminent loss of jobs particularly in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) companies as “AI is developing faster than most people can comprehend and is threatening to take away jobs and turn employment growth upside down.”
“Will call center agents and factory workers soon be treated as dispensable, after propping up our economy during a global health crisis?” Marcos said, pointing out that at the height of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in 2020 to 2021, the BPO industry grew by 10 percent to $29.5 billion.
She also cited a study done by the Oxford Economics and the US-based digital technology company Cisco showing that at least 1.1 million jobs in the Philippines will disappear in five years.
Moreover, she said that some 50 percent of organizations worldwide are seen adopting AI and automated machines this year, while investments in such technologies are projected to increase in the next three years by 50 percent to 100 percent, according to global consulting and advisory group Deloitte and professional services network KMPG, respectively.
Marcos stressed the urgency of educating lawmakers on global developments in AI technology through the Senate inquiry, and the need for both the legislative and executive branches of government to deal squarely with “an inevitable technological tsunami.”
She added that both houses of Congress should make it their “critical goal” to formulate regulatory measures against severe unemployment and to make the necessary amendments to the Intellectual Property Code, Revised Penal Code, and Cybercrime Prevention Act, among others.
