PHL demographics may be suitable for AI software development — Microsoft
By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
THE head of Microsoft Corp.’s Asia operation said the Philippines has favorable demographics for becoming a potential hub for artificial intelligence (AI) software, which it could grow as an offshoot of the outsourcing industry.
“The Philippines has such a great population base of young talented people (that it) can actually be a hub for creating AI software … and that could be a great supplement to the current outsourcing industry,” Microsoft Asia President Ahmed Mazhari said at a Makati Business Club forum on Tuesday.
“I truly believe that the outsourcing industry here should not be limited to the back office. You can actually go to the middle and front offices,” Mr. Mazhari added.
Josh P. Aquino, head of PR and communications at Microsoft Philippines, said the young workforce speaks the right languages when it comes to technology.
“It’s very young and global, and speaks the world’s language. We are represented in every country in the world through service workers so there is huge potential to establish ourselves as a nation that has a leading AI capability,” he said.
Microsoft views AI as a tool that can augment and amplify human ingenuity and capacity, potentially supplementing one of the pillars of the Philippine economy, which is the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
“When you have individuals catering to a global customer base, for example, in BPO, AI allows individual users to deliver more to more customers at speed,” Mr. Aquino said.
“AI solutions can help give customers insights because of the capacity of AI to process large amounts of data … It allows us to be even more customer-centric by offering more personalized insights and recommendations,” he added.
Microsoft has roughly a hundred workers in the Philippines, operating in large part through its over one thousand partners.
However, the company has not immune to tech industry layoffs, which have also impacted its operations in the Philippines, according to Mr. Aquino.
“This is a global situation we’re facing within the tech sector. It also has impacted Microsoft, but Microsoft today is the most valuable company in the world, and we only recently reached number one, so that speaks to the growth and potential of the company,” he said.
He also said Microsoft has established a larger presence in the Philippines by building a services center.
“There are (staffing) adjustments being made, but other parts of the company are growing. We have a services center here in the Philippines that is newly built, and that’s among the network of global service centers that we have across Latin America and Europe,” he said.
“So, it’s growing, and that speaks to how we’re prioritizing investments and also the resources of the company,” he added.