Sanjay Sarma, of Asia School of Business, said a third of the Philippines’s revenue comes from call centres, which businesses outsource to local residents.

He also said that recently, a Swedish fintech company developed an AI assistant that could operate in “23 markets, 24/7, in 35 languages”.

The AI, which handled two-thirds of its customer service, managed to attend to customers faster, with the resolution time dropping to two minutes from the previous 11. There was also a 25% drop in repeat inquiries, he said.

“It replaced the work of 700 full-time agents,” he said at the 11th Malaysia Statistics Conference here today.

Sanjay said the company’s AI is estimated to drive profit up to US$40 million in 20 years.

“The impact on jobs is real. We are on the threshold of something incredible, scary, terrifying, and wonderful,” he said.

He said the impact AI would have on the Malaysian job market would be “staggering”.

“I think Malaysia has, maybe, five years (before AI impacts jobs in the country),” he said.