Exports grow 23% and jobs grow 12%; what does this gap mean for those working in outsourcing in Egypt?

In Egypt today two numbers move in the same direction but at different speeds. Outsourcing exports, the services delivered by Egyptian companies to overseas clients, grew by about 23% year-on-year. Jobs created by the sector grew by about 12% only. That gap is the question EnterpriseAM raised in an interview it published on 22 September with Ahmed Al-Zahir, chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Development Authority (ITIDA), a question that directly concerns anyone working in call centres, technical support or software in Egypt.

A sector larger than many assume

According to the figures cited in the interview, outsourcing generated $5.2 billion in fiscal year 2025/2026, about 70 % of Egypt’s total digital exports of $7.4 billion. Around 195,300 Egyptians work in the industry as of the end of June, spread across 252 exporting firms that operate 282 specialised centres. Al-Zahir expects revenues to rise to $6.4 billion in the current fiscal year and the workforce to reach about 220,000 by its end, with a longer-term target of exceeding $8 billion by the close of 2027/2028.

Why aren’t jobs growing at the same pace?

EnterpriseAM links this gap to what is happening in India, the largest market for service exports, where revenues of major IT firms have continued to rise while the four biggest of them have shed more than 42,000 jobs over two years. The platform relays an industry insider’s explanation that artificial intelligence has begun to replace the human labour that was itself the product. A deeper concern is that the shift toward higher-value work such as engineering, research and development and chip design may not be faster than the technology itself.

Al-Zahir does not see the picture that way. He says artificial intelligence will take the simple call-centre jobs, but it will open higher-value doors: fewer people answering calls and providing chat support, and more programmers managing teams of intelligent agents, software that carries out sequential tasks on its own, as well as scenario designers and specialists who build and operate automated systems for banks, engineering firms and others.

Where do the new jobs actually appear?

The interview cites specific examples: Valeo opened a centre for developing artificial-intelligence applications in Egypt, Capgemini set up a specialised centre of excellence, Konecta launched what it describes as its first global centre of excellence in generative AI from Egypt, and Concentrix began building AI solutions from Egypt with local teams for its international clients. Al-Zahir adds that Egypt’s focus is essentially on the layer of applications and innovative solutions, noting that the country has strong capabilities and skilled youth.

On the contracting side, 127 companies, including 55 multinationals, pledged at the authority’s latest summit to create between 70,000 and 75,000 jobs in Egypt over three years under memoranda of understanding. The authority is working on a new strategy for 2027-2030 that places artificial intelligence at its core.

The problem is not the number of graduates

Egyptian universities graduate about 800,000 students each year, but the interview acknowledges what every recruiter knows: few of them possess the skills that companies are willing to pay for. The cited solutions include the authority’s AI and software-testing certifications, a “training for employment” programme for roughly 5,400 people run by 19 companies, as well as programmes from the Information Technology Institute and the National Telecom Institute. The real test, the platform says, is how many will graduate with a skill that companies will pay for.

What does this mean for you if you work in the sector?

If your work today consists of answering repetitive queries or handling simple support tickets, that is precisely the type of work the authority’s chief says artificial intelligence will take. The roles he describes as alternatives, from managing agents to designing automation scenarios and operating their systems, build on experience gained inside the operations themselves and a understanding of where bottlenecks occur. It is expertise that support staff possess more than they realise.

Watch two things in the coming months: whether the companies that signed the memoranda of understanding publish actual jobs with titles such as “conversation designer”, “automation engineer” or “AI systems tester”, and whether the free training programmes turn into employment contracts. Large figures announced at conferences are one thing, and a posted vacancy you can apply for is another.