An official of the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) on Wednesday said the sector remains “cautiously optimistic” about growth in 2026.

Sector revenues rose by 5 percent to over USD 40 million in 2025, while employment increased by 4 percent to 1.89 million.

In a briefing, IBPAP president and chief executive officer Jack Madrid said the results were “extremely positive” despite macroeconomic challenges.

He noted that investor appetite and expansion plans were dampened by macroeconomic and policy issues, but acknowledged government efforts to address these and attract more investors.

“As we begin 2026, I can say that we are cautiously optimistic about another positive year of growth for the Philippine IT-BPM industry,” Madrid said.

Madrid added that the sector’s growth is expected to be driven partly by Global Capacity Centers (GCCs), or high-value segments that handle companies’ core strategic operations such as financial services, health care, and information technology.

He said there are about 160 GCCs in the Philippines to date and expects the number to grow further, potentially outpacing the overall growth rate of the IT-BPM sector.

This, he said, also results in higher revenue rates for workers, underscoring the need to shift how the sector is measured — from job growth to revenue per employee.

“We need to measure and determine success of this industry by the level of capability of the digital Filipino, and that’s why the topic of talent development and upskilling and re-skilling will continue to be very important, especially now that we are seeing automation and artificial intelligence get integrated into into the services that we deliver,” Madrid said.

Madrid said workers in the IT-BPM sector need skills enhancement “so that they can leverage and take advantage of AI, generative AI, which needs human judgment, human decision making and human empathy.”

He said a PHP740-million budget has been allocated for the four-year program dubbed Uplifting National Labor through AI & Digital Skilling (Project UNLAD), to be implemented by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. (PNA)