CXAP sees revenue growing up to 10% on per-employee basis

THE CUSTOMER Xperience Association of the Philippines (CXAP) expects revenue per full-time employee (FTE) in the contact center-business process management (CC-BPM) industry to increase  up to 10% in the face of slowing staffing growth as artificial intelligence (AI) influences hiring practices.

“Per full-time employee (FTE), revenue in 2025 is around $20,000. For 2026, we are projecting that to be between $21,000 to $22,000,” CXAP President Haidee C. Enriquez said at a briefing on Monday.

“That means that FTE may not be growing as fast as before, but the revenue and impact on the Philippine economy is going to be bigger,” Ms. Enriquez noted.

The per-FTE revenue lags that of Indian CC-BPMs, which generate about $30,000.

Workforce expansion in the CC-BPM industry is expected to moderate in 2026, with CXAP projecting a 2.8% increase to 1.73 million FTEs from 1.68 million in 2025. This marks a slowdown from the 4% growth recorded in 2025.

The CC-BPM industry’s FTEs accounted for about 89% of the FTEs in the information technology-business processes management (IT-BPM) industry, which hit 1.89 million employees in 2025.

Tonichi Achurra-Parekh, CXAP board director and Concentrix CVG Philippines, Inc. vice-president, said the Philippine CC-BPM industry is well-positioned to take on emerging roles being created by AI.

“The Philippine workforce is best positioned to cater to these kinds of new jobs brought about by AI technology. It will be a missed opportunity for us if we don’t take advantage,” she told the briefing.

Ms. Enriquez noted that AI is replacing manual, repetitive jobs with more advanced roles.

“We do not have a lack of jobs… but the lack in talent is impeding our accelerated growth,” she said.

The rise of AI has led to the emergence of advanced tasks in marketing, procurement/supply chain, customer experience (CX) consulting, customer journey mapping (CJM), and IT-enabled and AI-augmented business processes.

AI has also created new job roles like GenAI Maintenance Officer, Prompt Engineer, AI Trainer or Supervisor, AI Content Strategies, CX AI Solutions Architect, and AI Ethicist.

According to CXAP’s 2026 Executive Survey, GenAI was identified as the top adopted technology among CC-BPM firms, followed by predictive analytics/CX data tools; conversational AI/chatbots, agentic AI, and robotic process automation.

However, talent availability was the top constraint to scaling AI, according to the survey.

Other challenges that CC-BPM firms face in scaling AI include cost, data quality, change management, and client demand, according to the survey.

The most in-demand skills among CC-BPM firms include AI/automation skills, digital and IT skills, customer relationship management, data analytics and reporting, and leadership/management.

Ms. Enriquez also noted that only four out of 50 learning plans submitted to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) have been given a notice to proceed, which has prevented CC-BPM firms from proceeding with their training programs.

Republic Act No. 12063 or the Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act, requires enterprises to submit their learning plans to TESDA before implementation.

CXAP said AI can still work to the industry’s advantage with appropriate upskilling.

“We don’t want to just be the voice capital of the world. We want to be the world’s global CX partner,” CXAP Board Director Julian Valenzuela said, referring to the so-called “voice” segment of the contact center business.

The CC-BPM industry is projected to grow revenue by 5.31% to $35.7 billion in 2026. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz