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MeliaCRED: Conversations with ElvisAuthor: Elvis Melia
Has the internet created a virtual labour market for new kinds of services? Does connectivity now allow job-seekers from the Global South, young people from low-income countries, to grow rich online? Did this help overcome the borders that have separated rich from poor? If not, might the Metaverse now create this new market space in the cloud? Are online labour platforms becoming immersive labour markets with equal access for all? I discuss these questions in conversations with online workers, policy makers, academics, educators, consultants, and firm executives from around the world. Language: en Genres: Science, Social Sciences Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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'I Think We Are the Right Amount of Worried.' AI and Jobs in Africa, with Rahul Srivatsa
Episode 15
Friday, 27 June, 2025
Rahul Srivatsa is the Managing Director of Techno Brain GBS. We spoke about the transformation of business process outsourcing (BPO), the automation threat to contact centres, and what workforce planning could look like across Africa in the ear of artificial intelligence (AI). Topics covered: How BPO operations may change with AI; the geographic diversification of global business services post-COVID; the different levels of customer support roles that may survive the AI transition; real-time accent neutralization and language translation breakthroughs; from individual BPO to AI agent management - the future workforce model; enterprise AI adoption challenges vs consumer-level capabilities; strategic upskilling - teaching AI collaboration over traditional coding; Africa's demographic dividend: opportunity or automation casualty? The difference between AI assistance and AI replacement. Techno Brain GBS is an IT outsourcing and consulting company with operations in Africa and the USA. They specialise in software development, quality assurance, and contact centre operations. Rahul has deep expertise in both the technical and business sides of global service delivery, and offers insight into how AI is reshaping the outsourcing landscape. He holds a Master's in Economics from Boston University. Connect with Rahul: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulsrivatsa/Techno Brain GBS: https://technobraingroup.com About this podcast: MeliaCRED: Conversations with Elvis explores how artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping work, education, and economic development - particularly in Africa. This interview was conducted as part of the fieldwork for research on "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Global Business Services in Ghana and Rwanda" for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Invest for Jobs – Special initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition." Video Production: MinabTech for MeliaCRED.
