Converge and IBPAP Join Forces to AI-Proof PH's 2M BPO Workers

The organization representing over 400 Philippine IT-BPM companies just added a new partner: Converge ICT. The goal is making the country's 1.9 million BPO workers AI-ready before the skills gap widens.

The partnership

Converge ICT Solutions — the fiber broadband provider — has joined IBPAP, the industry association covering Philippine IT-BPM companies. The partnership centers on workforce upskilling and AI preparedness for a sector that generated USD 40 billion in export revenues last year and accounts for more than 8% of GDP.

"We need to level up the skills of our workers and transform our industries to enable us to capture the opportunities being offered by the AI boom," Converge CEO Dennis Anthony H. Uy said Thursday.

Why Converge

Converge brings infrastructure — the fiber backbone that call centers and BPO offices depend on — plus a direct stake in the sector's growth. Uy said he's wanted to help upskill BPO workers since before joining IBPAP, describing AI readiness as a priority for the sector's nearly two million workers.

IBPAP's network already spans six sub-associations: animation, game development, healthcare IT, software, customer experience, and global capability centers. Converge now adds infrastructure connectivity to that coalition, covering the full supply chain of the industry — from the internet pipes to the people using them.

What this means for BPO workers

No specific training programs were announced yet. But the direction is clear: the Philippine BPO industry's biggest players are treating AI readiness as a sector-wide priority, not just a company-by-company concern.

If you work in IT-BPM and haven't started building AI skills, your window to get ahead of mandatory programs is now. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot are free or cheap to try. Workers who arrive already familiar with these tools will have an edge when companies roll out formal programs. Start with one use case: summarizing customer emails, drafting responses, or transcribing meeting notes.

Source: Converge, IBPAP partner to boost AI readiness in IT-BPM sector — BusinessWorld Online