Key Takeaways
By Andy Schachtel, CEO of Sourcefit | Global Talent and Elevated Outsourcing
- Only 6.7% of offshore professionals in client-managed roles are concerned AI will negatively affect their positions.
- 68% report meaningful productivity improvements from AI tools, led by writing, research, and customer support use cases.
- The biggest barrier to AI adoption is limited access to tools (30%), not resistance or fear.
- Across four countries, concern about AI displacement remains consistently low, even in regions with the highest adoption rates.
Why We Ran This Survey
There is no shortage of opinions about what AI will do to the outsourcing industry. Analysts predict mass displacement. Headlines ask whether offshore teams are obsolete. Think pieces debate whether BPO companies can survive the next five years.
What has been conspicuously absent from this conversation is data from the people who actually do the work.
We decided to change that. Between February and July 2026, we surveyed nearly 2,000 of our employees across four countries: the Philippines, South Africa, the Dominican Republic, and Madagascar. These are not corporate staff or executives. They are professionals embedded in client teams, managed day-to-day by our clients, working in more than 50 different roles across over 20 industries. Accountants, graphic designers, software engineers, healthcare administrators, customer service representatives, data analysts.
We asked them eight questions about how they use AI, what they think of it, and whether they are worried about it.
The answers were not what most people would expect.
The Headline Finding: Fear Is Not the Story
The question everyone wants answered is job security. We asked employees which statement best reflects their current mindset about AI and their role.
6.7% said they are concerned AI could negatively affect their role over time.
That is the number. Not 30%, not 50%. Fewer than 7 out of every 100 employees in client-managed roles expressed concern. Meanwhile, 28% said they feel confident AI will mainly enhance their role, 37% described themselves as cautiously optimistic, and 17% said they have not thought much about it.
This does not mean the concern is not real. For the employees who feel it, it matters. But at the scale of nearly 2,000 respondents across dozens of industries and four countries, the fear narrative that dominates public discourse does not match what the workforce is actually reporting.
AI Is Already Part of the Workday
More than half of employees in client-managed roles (52%) use AI tools daily or several times per week. Another 22% use AI occasionally. In total, 74% of the workforce has incorporated AI into their work to some degree.
Among Sourcefit’s own desk-based management team, AI adoption is universal.
The employees who do not use AI at all account for just 10% of the workforce. Another 16% use it rarely. For most offshore professionals, the question is not whether AI is part of their work. It already is.
Where AI Helps Most
We asked employees where AI has been most helpful in improving speed, quality, or consistency. The top three use cases were clear.
Writing and documentation: 37%. This includes drafting emails, creating reports, summarizing documents, and producing written content. For a workforce where English is often a second language, AI writing tools are a force multiplier for quality and speed.
Research and analysis: 30%. Employees use AI to gather information, compare data, and surface insights faster than manual research allows.
Customer responses and support: 14%. AI assists with drafting customer replies, handling routine queries, and maintaining consistency across support interactions.
The remaining responses were split between data handling (6%), quality review (5%), and employees who said AI has not been particularly helpful (9%).
Productivity Gains Are Widespread
68% of employees in client-managed roles report that AI has had a moderate or significant positive impact on their productivity and output quality. Breaking that down: 30% said the improvement is significant, and 38% described it as moderate.
Only 0.5% reported a negative impact from AI tools. 11% described the impact as mixed, 10% said they are not sure, and 10% reported little to no impact.
These are self-reported perceptions, not measured output. But when more than two-thirds of a nearly 2,000-person workforce independently reports productivity gains, the signal is worth taking seriously.
Confidence Is High, Discomfort Is Rare
66% of employees feel very or somewhat confident using AI tools within their role and client guidelines. Only 3% reported being uncomfortable using AI at work. The remaining 31% are either unsure about the boundaries (19%) or said AI is not applicable to their current role (12%).
The confidence data aligns with the adoption data. When most of the workforce is already using AI regularly and reporting productivity gains, high confidence follows naturally. The small discomfort number suggests this is not a workforce that is being pushed into AI adoption against its will.
Workers Want More Access, Not Less
We asked employees what most limits their ability to use AI more effectively. The number one answer was not fear, not confusion, not lack of interest.
It was limited access to tools. 30% cited this as their primary barrier.
The next barriers were data security or compliance concerns (20%), unclear policies or guidelines (14%), and lack of training or support (13%). Only 6% cited client restrictions as the main obstacle.
This pattern is important because it reframes the adoption challenge. The bottleneck is not worker resistance. It is infrastructure, policy, and access. The workforce is ahead of the systems designed to support them.
How They See the Next Two Years
We asked employees how they expect AI to affect their role over the next 12 to 24 months. The responses break into three groups.
The largest group (41%) believes AI will support parts of their role but not fundamentally change it. They see AI as a tool that makes certain tasks easier without transforming what they do.
The next group (22%) expects AI to significantly augment their role and increase their effectiveness. These are the employees who see AI as a capability multiplier, not just a convenience.
Only 7% believe AI may reduce or eliminate parts of their role. Another 5% said AI will change their role in ways that are still unclear. The remaining 24% said they are not sure.
What the Regional Data Shows
One of the advantages of surveying across four countries is the ability to see how AI adoption patterns vary by region. The numbers tell a consistent story with some interesting variations.
| Metric | Philippines | South Africa | Dom. Republic | Madagascar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sample size | 1,612 | 96 | 30 | 16 |
| Regular AI use | 52% | 52% | 70% | 63% |
| Productivity improvement | 69% | 59% | 73% | 63% |
| Positive AI sentiment | 74% | 71% | 83% | 75% |
| Concerned about AI | 6% | 7% | 0% | 6% |
The Dominican Republic stands out with the highest adoption rate (70%) and productivity improvement (73%), with zero respondents expressing concern about AI displacement. This is a strong proof point for nearshore operations. South Africa shows a more measured productivity response (59%) despite similar adoption rates to the Philippines. Madagascar, though a smaller sample, tracks closely with the overall averages.
What is consistent across every region is the low concern about AI displacement. No country exceeded 7%. This is not a regional phenomenon. It is consistently absent from the workforce.
What This Means for Companies Evaluating Outsourcing
If you are evaluating an outsourcing partnership and AI readiness is a factor in your decision, this data should inform your thinking.
The offshore workforce is not resisting AI. They are adopting it, reporting productivity gains from it, and asking for more access. The assumption that offshore teams will be slow to adopt is not supported by the data.
The biggest constraint on AI adoption in outsourced teams is not the workforce. It is access to tools, security policies, and organizational guidelines. If you want your offshore team to use AI effectively, the first step is giving them access and clear guardrails.
When offshore and onshore teams have access to the same AI tools, the gap in output quality narrows. AI can be an equalizer between local and offshore staff. The offshore team becomes more competitive, not less.
We will keep running this survey. If the answers change, that will matter too. But right now, the data says something that most industry commentary is missing: the people closest to this work are not afraid of AI. They are using it, and they want more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How was the Sourcefit AI survey conducted?
The survey was conducted between February and July 2026 across Sourcefit’s operations in the Philippines, South Africa, Dominican Republic, and Madagascar. Nearly 2,000 employees responded to eight questions covering AI usage frequency, use cases, productivity impact, job outlook, confidence levels, adoption barriers, and expected role changes. Key findings are reported from 1,860 employees in client-managed staff augmentation roles, analyzed separately from Sourcefit’s own management team.
Why did only 7% of employees express concern about AI?
Several factors likely contribute. These employees use AI tools regularly and can see firsthand where AI helps and where it falls short. They work in roles where AI currently functions as a productivity tool rather than a replacement for human judgment. Their daily experience with AI may provide a more grounded perspective than the broader media narrative suggests. It is also worth noting that this is a self-reported sentiment, and perceptions can change as the technology evolves.
What are the most common AI use cases among offshore employees?
The top three use cases are writing and documentation (37%), research and analysis (30%), and customer responses or support (14%). These are functions where AI tools assist with speed, consistency, and quality without replacing the human judgment required for the work. Data handling and quality review account for another 11% combined.
How does AI adoption vary across countries?
The Dominican Republic leads with 70% regular AI use and 73% reporting productivity gains, with zero respondents expressing concern about AI. The Philippines and South Africa show similar adoption rates around 52%. Madagascar shows 63% regular use. Concern about AI impact stays below 7% in every region surveyed.
What does this survey mean for companies considering outsourcing?
The data shows that offshore teams are actively adopting AI and reporting productivity benefits. The primary barrier to broader adoption is limited access to tools, not worker resistance. Companies that provide AI access and clear usage guidelines to their offshore teams are likely to see the largest productivity returns. The survey suggests that AI readiness should be a factor in evaluating outsourcing partners, and that the workforce itself is not the bottleneck.
To learn more about how Sourcefit is building an AI-ready workforce and what that means for your business, visit sourcefit.com or contact our team for a consultation.
