During a recent conference focused on Artificial Intelligence, a report was released indicating that the recent expansion of the outsourcing industry in Africa is expected to slow down. The report urged workers to enhance their skills to secure better employment opportunities.
Outsourcing is a business strategy where companies hire external firms to perform tasks that could be done in-house. This allows the contracting company to concentrate on its core competencies while reducing costs, improving efficiency, and increasing productivity.
The new report by Caribou and Genesis Analytics, in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, highlighted that tasks typically performed by women are, on average, 10% more susceptible to automation compared to those performed by men in the same sector.
This discrepancy, the document warns, will widen gender inequalities in the workforce unless proactively addressed.
The study found that lower-wage jobs, comprising 68% of the workforce, are particularly at risk, with up to 40% of human tasks in Africa’s outsourcing sector potentially facing automation.
Experts in artificial intelligence present at the summit noted that, with the right investments and training, women and young people could gain access to higher-paying and more skilled work than they currently perform.
Jeremy Jurgen, Director-General of the World Economic Forum, co-organizer of the conference, commented on the existing shortage of AI workers and stressed the need to invest in talent development to address this issue.
