FREEPORT, St James — Vice-president of Port Authority of Jamaica and former president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ) Gloria Henry has revealed that, as of next year, disruptive technology, such as artificial intelligence and the use of robots, will be among the tools used to transform services offered by members of GSAJ.

“We have to continue to position ourselves: position ourselves strategically in terms of our talent and our capabilities, position ourselves in terms of our ability to accommodate, and position ourselves in terms of our ability to diversify and add value,” stated Henry.

She was addressing a GSAJ board of directors’ annual end-of-year event in Freeport, St James, on Tuesday. GSAJ is a non-profit and non-governmental organisation that lobbies on behalf of information communications technology, the global services sector, and related companies doing business in Jamaica.

“The companies that are adding value are the ones that are likely to thrive. Outsourcers are not looking for cost savings so much anymore. They want innovation and they want value. We have to put ourselves at the forefront of innovation and our ability to add value to the work that we do,” she added.

Henry sought to dispel the notion that the sector, which has gone through several transitions over the past 50 years, is merely temporary.

“Most of you young people would not know the days when we were manual. We would pick up boxes at the airport, rush them to the free zone, process them, rush back to catch the Air Jamaica flight. We have transitioned to different stages of technological advancement. It is the same transition that we are going through now,” argued the BPO and logistics expert.

Henry also addressed the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) having a negative impact on the sector.

“We are not saying that there won’t be some changes but the doom and gloom that people are talking about, you all know that that’s not going to be the case,” she assured.

“In my research recently, we see where global services in the global space will continue to grow between four and nine and a half per cent per annum. The US, which is our largest destination, has several billion dollars’ worth of transactions that they will be outsourcing in the next five years,” added Henry.

“We’re going to continue to drive excellence. We are going to continue to fuel growth. We’re going to continue to diversify and we’re going to continue to build and strengthen in the global services sector,” she said.

Henry said the sector is still working towards employing 75,000 people, and this will be achieved by entering into a partnership for training next year. She said the services of specialist Elizabeth Lawrence will be enlisted, and Lawrence will be working from the free zone.

“We know that HEART/NSTA [Trust] is our partner in terms of human capital development but there are 500,000 people outside the labour force, some of whom are not equipped educationally to be part of the formal labour force. We went back and reinvented the wheel and connected with someone who was instrumental in the people development aspect of the sector and supporting the sector through making a pipeline of available talent ready for the sector,” stated Henry.

“We are going to be reorganising the global services. And we’re going to work intimately with her [Lawrence] to build out a training programme so we can have a pipeline of talent,” she added.

Henry also gave an update on Outsource2Jamaica 2025 ,which will be held in Montego Bay in April 2025. The goal, she said, is to make the event bigger and better. The theme will be driving excellence.

“Driving excellence in our employees, our talents; driving excellence in technology and driving excellence in transformation. I say transformation is the last one because a lot of what we are going to be doing [next] year and beyond is transformation using disruptive technology and using people power transformation in the services that we’re offering,” said Henry.

“We are engaging with one of the leading advisory firms to bring buyers to Jamaica and buyers who will engage and will do business with existing businesses and operators here in Jamaica,” she added.

The global services sector has grown by more than 300 per cent locally over the past 10 years and is currently the third-largest employer of labour in Jamaica. It is also the third-largest source of foreign exchange for the economy, earning more than US$1 billion per year since 2022.