The playbook for Jamaica’s next outsourcing chapter

When it comes to outsourcing, US clients are no longer looking simply for headcount. They are looking for delivery ecosystems that support analytics, automation, and AI-enabled service performance. That shift is already redefining what global services look like, and it creates both a challenge and an opportunity for Jamaica.

Jamaica’s business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is already one of the country’s greatest economic success stories. As the third-largest foreign exchange earner, the industry generates more than US$900 million annually and supports approximately 55,000 jobs across more than 70 operators.

But the environment that made this growth possible is quickly changing. Artificial intelligence is reshaping many of the entry-level roles that once fuelled expansion, while outsourcing buyers are increasingly selecting partners based not just on workforce availability, but on their ability to support analytics-driven performance and the integration of human expertise with automation.

Competition is already intensifying. Jamaica is no longer measured only against traditional outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines. Regional peers, including the Dominican Republic and Colombia, are investing aggressively in workforce development and digital capabilities as they reposition themselves for higher-value service delivery. At the same time, job growth across Jamaica’s own sector has slowed over the past year. This is not a signal that the industry is weakening. Rather, it is a signal that the business model needs to evolve.

The opportunity emerging from that evolution is significant. Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), which includes services such as data analytics, AI-supported operations, and specialised industry support functions, is currently valued at between US$120 billion and US$140 billion globally and is projected to exceed US$300 billion by 2030. These are not distant opportunities. They are adjacent to capabilities Jamaica is already developing.

This transition is not unprecedented and it is not without a blueprint. In the 2010s, the Philippines recognised that outsourcing demand was shifting beyond traditional voice support. Through coordinated investment in training programmes, infrastructure, and technology readiness, industry leaders and government partners repositioned the country’s workforce for higher-value, knowledge-based services. Today, 67 per cent of the Philippine contact centre workforce uses artificial intelligence as an augmentation tool. This did not happen by accident. It happened because industry capability and national strategy moved in the same direction.

The real barrier to entering this new phase of growth may also be Jamaica’s positioning on the world stage. Jamaica’s workforce is already supporting more complex service delivery, but global awareness of Jamaica’s strengths has been locked into the idea of capacity and cost-efficiency. That perception has not yet caught up with the reality of how the sector is truly evolving, and concerns about automation and job loss risk reinforcing a narrative that limits ambition rather than expands it.

Jamaica already has the competitive ingredients it needs. It has proximity to the United States, English fluency, cultural compatibility with North American consumers, and a real-time collaboration advantage over Asia-based delivery markets. The next step is not to build a new industry, but to move further up within the one that already exists.

Doing so will require alignment. Workforce development programmes that expand analytical capability and AI literacy must continue to grow. Industry leaders and national stakeholders must work together to reposition Jamaica internationally — not only as an efficient delivery destination, but as a hub for intelligent service operations. Policy frameworks that support digital infrastructure investment and new training pathways will help ensure that the country remains competitive.

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping global outsourcing, but its impact is not simply about automation. It is about specialisation. As service delivery becomes more intelligent and more data-driven, the value of human expertise increases rather than declines. With the right investments in workforce capability and operational integration, Jamaica can expand its presence in areas such as CX intelligence services, analytics-driven optimisation, AI supervision, and healthcare support. These are precisely the kinds of roles that define the next generation of global services.

Jamaica has already built one of the Caribbean’s most important global services industries. The opportunity now is not somewhere in the future. It is already within reach. With coordinated investment in technology integration, workforce positioning, and public-private collaboration, Jamaica can define its role in the next phase of global outsourcing — or it can simply respond to it.

Yoni Epstein is the founder & CEO, itel