The Bacolod Blockchain Initiative, which seeks to introduce the city to new internet technology, including cryptocurrency, was held at the Carlos Hilado Memorial State College Talisay City campus yesterday, where the concept of automated call centers was brought up as a possibility for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.

According to DynaQuest Technology Services CEO Randy Knutson, “Blockchain technology will help the Philippine BPO industry migrate to [the] next digital wave and create new jobs, and preserve existing jobs that will be replaced by artificial intelligence-based call centers.”

Earlier this year, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told ABS-CBN News, BPO firms need to upgrade worker skills since “companies look increasingly towards artificial intelligence.”

The article also documented call center agents whose jobs were replaced by automated software.

“In the next three to five years, it will really be hitting harder,” Pernia said to the network. “It will be a reality, this AI (artificial intelligence).”

A report by the Association for Computing Machinery said, “Advances in artificial intelligence are yielding significant benefits for organizations that deploy the technology in their call centers.”

“Rather than simply being used to replace contact center workers, artificial intelligence-based technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and even sentiment analysis, are being strategically deployed to improve the overall customer experience,” the report added.

The Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNeFIT) is working to bring blockchain technology to the city, coordinating with Singapore-based firm Ethereum World.