When Outsourcing Workers Trained AI and Got Fired

Sun Sep 06 2026 14:15:46 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Call centre employees in Manila are facing AI‑driven layoffs, caught in a transition that turns them into the very tools that replace them.

Around 1.9 million Filipinos work in the country’s booming outsourcing sector, where AI is now reshaping jobs. Workers who once powered content and editing now find themselves redundant as their own training data fuels new AI systems. While firms like Teleperformance say AI will augment rather than replace staff, layoffs point to deeper cracks in the model. The Philippine government plans to upskill workers, but the shift may leave many behind, questioning the future of an industry built on low‑cost labour.

While many thought AI would help them thrive, for some Filipino outsourcing workers it has become a death sentence.

Lisa, a single mother who had written web content since college, joined the outsourcing industry after the Philippines was promoted as a top English‑speaking hub. For eight months she worked at a multinational PR agency, happy to meet deadlines without using AI.

“I feel like I dug my own grave,” Lisa said. She and her colleagues were asked to edit AI‑generated content and, in fact, helped train the algorithm that later replaced them. A month before their contracts were made permanent, the company made them redundant.

Not Lisa alone—another former content writer named Mary told the BBC that AI was encouraged as a productivity tool but ended up adding extra work. She had to fact‑check inaccurate AI output, effectively doubling her workload before being let go.

These stories reveal a broader reality: the Philippines’ outsourcing sector, about 1.9 million jobs and $40 bn revenue, is highly exposed to generative AI. Around 12.7 million workers—more than a quarter of the country’s workforce—engage in roles that AI could automate.

The International Labour Organization expects many jobs to evolve rather than vanish, but the nature of service roles makes Filipinos particularly vulnerable. The industry’s growth of cost‑efficiency via AI is seen as a “pressure to automate,” a phrase echoed by experts.

Large global firms have mixed responses. Teleperformance claims AI will handle routine tasks while humans tackle complex ones, with plans to retrain staff. Accenture and Concentrix also pledge billions for AI and workforce training, yet they remain under intense pressure from multinational clients to adopt the technology quickly.

Some managers, like a professor from the University of the Philippines, worry that layoffs are justified under the guise of AI. He warns of “AI washing,” where companies cite technology as a reason for cuts while hiding weaker demand or economic factors.

The Philippines’ labour laws regulate redundancy but offer little guidance on how to introduce AI into the workplace. The sector is largely non‑unionised, leaving workers with little voice.

The government says it and the private sector must retrain the workforce to stay competitive against rivals such as India and Singapore. Officials plan to upskill 300,000 outsourcing workers and aim to shift from a foreign‑direct‑investment model to nurturing local AI talent and companies.

Still, experts caution that the shift could leave a portion of the workforce behind, as the outsourcing model that lifted millions to the middle class faces an uncertain future in the age of AI.