BagoSphere hoping to train 500,000 frontline SEA workers in AI by 2035

By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz,  Senior Reporter

SINGAPORE — BagoSphere, a Singapore-headquartered workforce training company, is looking to train 500,000 frontline workers across five Southeast Asian (SEA) countries by 2035, with the aim of helping employees keep up with the global artificial intelligence (AI)-driven economy.

Zhihan Lee, chief executive officer and co-founder of BagoSphere, told BusinessWorld that the target covers Southeast Asian workers involved in business process outsourcing (BPO), hospitality, transport, logistics, and micro-finance.

“In the Philippines and in many Southeast Asian countries, the transition for young people coming out of school to work is fraught with a lot of difficulties,” he said on the sidelines of the Philanthropy Asia Summit, organized by Singapore’s Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) on Monday.

BagoSphere said it will target Southeast Asia’s growing informal economy to help such workers enter the formal workforce.

Southeast Asia has about 244 million informal workers, according to the International Labour Organization.

“We want to bring these informal workers into the formal economy, where there is a pathway for them to get out of poverty in a sustainable way,” he said.

Founded in 2012, BagoSphere seeks to provide skills and human capability training to frontline workers — or employees who directly interact with customers and patients — to boost their productivity, job-readiness and retention. 

It is looking to improve the talent pipeline, retention, and leadership development, Mr. Lee said.

The company derived its name from a Southeast Asian native tree, as well as Bago City in the Philippines’ Negros Occidental province, where it began by training 14 unemployed high school students.

It originally focused on supporting workers in the Philippine BPO industry, which was emerging as a key driver of employment in the 2010s. BagoSphere has since expanded its reach to frontline employees in healthcare, microfinance, transportation, food and beverage, retail, and hospitality.

The company has trained over 16,000 Filipino frontline employees since its founding.

Mr. Lee noted that as AI increasingly takes over both routine and complex tasks, companies with frontline employees will rely more on the human touch as a key driver of value.

“With all these advancements, the learning and growth mindset of frontline workers need to be high,” according to Tippi Fernandez, co-founder and chief operating officer at BagoSphere.

She also noted that BagoSphere’s training has evolved from simply teaching English proficiency and computer skills to soft skills, such as cultivating a growth mindset.

BagoSphere is one of the mentees of the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices and PAA’s Amplifier mentorship program.