Pakistan's call centre and Business Process Outsourcing industry earned $322 million from exports in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2025-26, a 19% increase that industry experts partly attribute to the growing use of artificial intelligence in customer support and outsourcing operations.
Data from the State Bank of Pakistan showed that call centre export receipts rose by $53 million during July-May FY2025-26 from $269 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. The increase has made call centres and BPO services one of the faster-growing segments of Pakistan's IT exports, as overseas demand combines with greater adoption of AI-powered customer-support technology. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being deployed to automate routine work, shorten response times, analyse customer behaviour and provide round-the-clock multilingual assistance. Industry experts argue that these capabilities are helping Pakistani service providers compete for international business.
Dr Munawar Javed Ahmad, an AI integration researcher, said the technology was reshaping the global outsourcing industry by improving efficiency, lowering operating costs and enhancing the quality of services. 'The integration of artificial intelligence is transforming businesses across multiple sectors, including call centres and BPOs,' he said.
Ahmad argued that investment in AI could help address shortages of skilled workers while increasing productivity and generating higher export earnings. Global customers, he noted, are increasingly seeking outsourcing providers that can combine intelligent automation, data analytics and AI-assisted customer engagement with conventional support services. That shift presents an opportunity for Pakistan, but exploiting it would require further investment in digital infrastructure, workforce training and artificial intelligence, according to Ahmad. He called for the government, regulators and the IT industry to devise a broader strategy for attracting domestic and foreign capital into call centres and BPO businesses, including incentives for companies to adopt technologies that match changing international requirements.
Pakistan's outsourcing industry is already heavily oriented towards foreign customers. According to the Call Centre Association of Pakistan, nearly 90% of the country's call centres and BPO companies primarily cater to overseas clients. The remainder provide customer-support and business services to multinational companies and utilities operating domestically. More than 1,000 call centres are registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board. An estimated 500 additional medium-sized and large operations work independently across major cities.
Hundreds of smaller customer-support businesses also operate within software houses, digital-marketing agencies, e-commerce companies and technology startups. Ahmad said Pakistan's standing as an outsourcing destination had improved in recent years because of an expanding pool of IT workers, competitive operating costs and improving digital infrastructure. He argued that an aggressive international marketing effort could help the country secure a larger share of global outsourcing business, particularly at a time when Pakistan's diplomatic role had increased its international visibility.
Dr Noman Ahmed Said, chief executive of SI Global Solutions, similarly argued that the next phase of outsourcing would depend on combining skilled workers with artificial intelligence. 'The future of outsourcing belongs to countries that successfully combine skilled human capital with artificial intelligence,' he said, adding that Pakistan had the talent and entrepreneurial capacity to develop as an AI-enabled BPO destination. Sustaining the industry's expansion, however, would require improvements beyond artificial intelligence. Said identified reliable internet connectivity, uninterrupted electricity, investment in AI skills, simpler tax procedures and easier international payment mechanisms among the requirements for maintaining momentum. He also argued that encouraging startups and small and medium-sized enterprises within the BPO ecosystem could generate employment and increase foreign-exchange earnings.
Rather than seeing artificial intelligence solely as a replacement for labour, Said described the emerging model as one centred on 'AI-assisted professionals', arguing that countries with large workforces capable of being trained could benefit from the technological transition. The industry's recent export performance suggests that this transformation is already affecting its foreign earnings. At $322 million during July-May, receipts were almost one-fifth higher than a year earlier, while the overwhelming majority of Pakistani call centres and BPO businesses remained focused on overseas customers.
Industry observers see further scope for expansion as global companies outsource more customer-support and back-office functions to lower-cost destinations. But capturing a larger portion of that business would depend on continued investment in artificial intelligence as well as cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, language training and digital skills. For Pakistan's call centre industry, the opportunity is therefore tied not merely to offering cheaper outsourced labour, but to whether its companies can increasingly combine that workforce with the technologies now changing how international customer support is delivered.