CHENNAI — The Philippines’ thriving IT-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) Sector is gearing up for a big artificial intelligence (AI) leap, in a shift also supported and propelled by Indian industry players.

The upskilling of the Philippines’ huge IT talent pool is well on its way, reported executives of Cognizant Technology Solutions to Philippine Ambassador to India Josel F. Ignacio and Embassy Commercial Counsellor Eugenio D. Elevado, Jr. The Philippine officials were visiting TCS’ sprawling complex on the final day of their mission to India’s economic powerhouse city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu State.

For 30 years now, Cognizant has been one of the world’s leading providers of IT, consulting, and business process outsourcing services. It has 336,300 employees in operations worldwide that generate revenue of USD 19.5 billion.

It provides the world’s largest and trusted companies a wide host of services, including automation, software, BPM, Cloud, Consulting, AI, Internet of Things (IoT), quality assurance and others. Its industry presence spans a broad field that covers healthcare, manufacturing, banking, logistics, telecom, insurance, education, and retail.

Present since 2009 in the Philippines, Cognizant operates from multiple locations including Manila and Cebu, and employs over 6,000. It services global industries like communications, insurance, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, and financial services.

Amb. Ignacio and Counsellor Elevado were received and given a briefing by Cognizant representatives: Ms. Poornima Sathy, Vice President and Global Solutioning Head – Core Technologies and Insights; Mr. Alankar Srivastava, Senior Director and Strategy & Innovation Lead – Global Growth Markets; Ms. Nirmala Jane, Engineering Director – AI & Analytics; and Mr. Antony Pradeep, Cognizant Innovation Studio Lead. Joining the meeting remotely from New Delhi, Mr. Gaurav Hazra, Vice President & Head, Government Affairs.

Cognizant is now heavily cross-training its Filipino staff as it seeks to bring its Philippine operations and services onto a higher service and value-added track, including AI-oriented services, anticipating a world of pervasive AI driven by the generative AI (GenAI) revolution.

The Philippine IT-BPM sector is seen to position itself to retain its dominance with India amidst the evolving landscape, able to deftly balance in providing cutting edge, innovative services, while also servicing those grounded on legacy systems.

The visit concluded with a tour of the site’s “Innovation Studio”. Also dubbed an “experience center”, the Cognizant Team demonstrated the company’s development of real-world operations of AI and cutting-edge technologies in areas such as public works planning and management; retail store inventory management; telemedicine (“virtual doctor”); augmented reality- and virtual reality training, and others.

The Embassy Team and Cognizant are optimistic about the Philippine IT-BPM’s sector’s prospects and competitiveness, factoring in the industry’s resolute efforts to ramp up upskilling and workforce development, paired with Filipinos’ natural creativity and strong intelligence and emotional quotients. END