MANILA, Philippines — Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) firms are starting to test agentic AI (AI that can handle a task end-to-end with less hand-holding) to speed up work. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Philippines Country Manager Precious Lim said at a media briefing in Manila, Feb. 24, 2026.
“Our BPO sector is super important. They’re not just providing voice and contact center services right to customers around the globe. But also around legal, software development, animation, banking, [and] back office services, [right]?” Lim said. “So they are also looking at ways to apply agentic AI so that these processes can be done faster.”
Lim said many companies are moving past “trying things out” and are now being more selective, keeping the AI projects that clearly move the needle. “However, fast forward to today, and especially for those organizations that have been experimenting and I’m launching their use cases for AI, for quite some time, we’ve seen these organizations to now be at the stage where they… already have decision criteria in terms of which AI initiatives are really bringing them increased productivity or operational efficiency,” she said. “So that they can decide which ones to scale.”
She added that a big chunk of last year’s AI work was aimed at customer-facing improvements. “A lot of initiatives coming from last year are around customer experience. Transforming the customer experience by the use of AI, use of chatbots,” Lim said.
In practical terms, agentic AI is a step up from a basic chatbot. Instead of only answering questions, it can follow rules, make choices, and complete multi-step workflows. Like, sorting requests, pulling the needed data, drafting a response, routing it for approval, and tracking what happens after.
Lim also pushed back on the idea that AI automatically means job cuts. Saying, the goal is to raise the value of the work people do. “And our human capital, our Filipinos that are employed by these BPOs. Right, can up level the value that they provide their customers,” she said.
The shift matters for an industry that is a major source of jobs and export earnings. And that’s also facing tougher competition as other countries use AI to level up voice services and tech-enabled support. For local providers, the next fight is less about having “some AI”. And more about using it in ways that improve speed, quality, and consistency. While keeping people focused on complex cases, problem-solving and client relationships.