Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots run by workers in the Philippines

https://restofworld.org/2025/philippines-offshoring-automation-tech-jobs/

Inside a multistory office building in Manila’s financial district, around 
60 young men and women monitored and controlled artificial intelligence 
robots restocking convenience store shelves in distant Japan. 

https://restofworld.org/charts/?utm_medium=row-charts-link

Robert said full automation may never be achieved, and some humans would 
always be needed to monitor automated systems. “Are robots and AI gonna 
take all the jobs from humans? The answer is no — because humans are 
pretty useful. The future is a robotic-AI-automation-human hybrid 
workforce,” he said.

Some 1,000 global employers surveyed by the World Economic Forum this year 
said they expect the share of human-only jobs to decline rapidly, replaced 
by jobs done together with — or solely by — machines. About 41% of them 
also said they anticipate job cuts as workers’ skills become obsolete.  

That hybrid future is already visible in the Philippines. Aside from IT-
service work, Filipino IT engineers are helping build the AI systems 
transforming how people work globally. 

A young AI engineer for an international firm, which manages data for 
Amazon, Coca-Cola, and other global corporations, said he is helping build 
an AI chatbot using an LLM trained on internal data. The bot would respond 
to employee questions. 

“The goal is to speed up internal processes,” he said.

International firms are actively seeking IT workers like him, who receive 
a “Philippine rate,” the employee said. “It’s not so low-ball; it’s still 
pretty competitive. It’s bigger if you go there [to the headquarters], but 
then … your monthly expenses [there] can get really expensive.”

An engineering graduate working in IT services for a top U.S.-based 
international consulting firm said they helped develop an IT help desk 
agent, which has drastically cut their workload. 

“Lately, we just handle around six tasks a day,” they told Rest of World. 
“Every time I’m called into a meeting, I’m afraid of being told I’m not 
needed anymore.” Hired through an outsourcing company, they work remotely 
and are paid $874 per month — about 30% less than the American minimum 
wage for full-time work.

https://restofworld.org/charts/?utm_medium=row-charts-link

Filipinos are being used to maximize the profits of international firms, 
Xian Guevarra, secretary-general of the Computer Professionals Union, 
which represents computer engineers in the Philippines, told Rest of 
World. 

“Filipinos are building the tools that could be used to replace them later 
on. Tech should augment their work and efficiency, not [be] something to 
maximize profits overseas,” he said.

Filipino workers are eager to work for foreign companies because they pay 
better than local firms. Marc Escobar, chief technology officer of 
Philippines-based startup Sofi AI, was offered a job as an AI engineer for 
Anthropic, the California-based startup behind Claude.  

He was offered $1,500 a month — high pay for a 22-year-old fresh out of 
university. But Escobar turned it down. Though Sofi AI pays about half as 
much, his company believes in creating opportunities for engineers 
locally, he said. 

“I can’t do it [join a foreign company] because I want to see our local 
efforts, our company, succeed,” Escobar said. “I want to show that we can 
also upscale with AI in the Philippines.”


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.