Ibex Ltd has warned investors that some third-party artificial intelligence tools could automate or reduce demand for its simpler, more routine service lines. 

The warning appears in the risk factors of the company’s annual report for the year ended June 30, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10.

The filing describes a possibility, not a result, and it does not say AI has already cost Ibex business. The company also sells the technology. Its Wave iX platform includes a virtual agent that handles straightforward customer inquiries on its own and passes harder ones to human agents. Ibex says such tools serve clients more efficiently than a delivery model built on cheaper labour alone. Elsewhere in the report, it says AI bots answering pre-defined queries have begun to affect assisted customer interactions across the industry.

The concern is sharper in Jamaica because routine contact work makes up most of what the island’s outsourcing seats do. The Government’s annual report, covered by the Jamaica Observer, sets a goal of changing the sector’s mix of business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) jobs to 60:40 from 80:20. The stated aim is to reduce reliance on basic queries and routine tasks. The same report lists technological advancements among the reasons sector employment fell to about 50,000 in March 2026 from 62,000 two years earlier. The Global Services Association of Jamaica counts about 40,000 jobs.

Ibex does not blame AI for its own Jamaican cuts. The Jamaica Gleaner reported that the company’s centres on the island fell to two from four and its seats to 2,405 from 3,810, and that Ibex pointed to client cost pressure and a shift to cheaper regions, not weak demand. Company-wide, Ibex’s headcount rose to about 35,000 from 33,000, with offshore growth outweighing a drop in nearshore staff, the 10-K shows. In its 2024 disclosures, Ibex named generative AI, alongside inflation, as a factor in clients’ decisions, Outsource Accelerator reported.

Industry research suggests the effect so far is smaller than the headlines. A Gartner survey of 321 customer service leaders in October 2025 found that only 20 per cent had reduced agent staffing because of AI. Most said headcount was steady while they handled more customers. Gartner has forecast that by 2027, half of the companies that attributed cuts to AI will rehire for similar work under different job titles. It also found that 42 per cent of organisations are hiring specialised staff, including AI strategists, conversational AI designers and automation analysts.

Kingston is betting on that shift. The Government says Jampro is courting KPO operators and working with universities and the HEART/NSTA Trust on training, alongside programmes with the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Kingdom Trade Partnerships Programme. A working group of industry and state agencies has been asked to develop an action plan. No timetable for the change in job mix has been published.