AI surge fuels growth of offshore call centers despite automation fears
Despite expectations that AI would cut back-office jobs, offshore call-center employment in the Philippines and India has kept rising, with unemployment falling in both countries.
When Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said the firm was eliminating 4,000 customer-service roles in September 2025, many assumed AI would soon replace offshore agents. However, Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok highlighted data from the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines showing call-center employment in the Philippines grew every year from 2016 to 2025, almost doubling to 2 million. Unemployment rates in the Philippines fell from 9% to about 5%, and in India from around 7% to 6% between 2021 and July 2026, suggesting AI has not displaced these workers.
Slok likens the trend to Jevons paradox: cheaper, faster AI-enabled interactions lead companies to increase the volume of service they provide, hiring more staff. Supporting this, a 2023 Stanford Digital Economy Lab study found AI assistants raised agent productivity by an average of 14% per hour. Experts note that while AI improves efficiency, human agents remain valuable for complex issues and brand perception, reinforcing the continued demand for offshore call-center labor.
Why it matters
It shows AI can expand, not shrink, offshore service jobs, affecting global employment trends.
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