VANTIS is hosting HackManila’s next chapter: a community-first gathering for people building useful things in the Philippines.
< POINTS OF HACKMANILA >
Owned capability, not rented labor
The Philippines grew by renting out workforce capacity. AI pushes the country to own firms, IP, and infrastructure—not just host outsourced operations.
Outcomes beat hours
BPO wins on selling time. AI weakens that pricing; what survives is useful work product and capability built here.
Builders have to show up
Local teams and capital need to build the next layer. Protecting existing seats and waiting on offshore buyers is not a transition plan.
The event
HM2.0 is about shipping work you can price by result—one workflow, a clear outcome, and an offer worth testing.
Choose a bounded process—not a vague transformation deck. Name the customer outcome both sides can observe and measure.
Automate the routine path, define where humans handle exceptions, and price the deliverable instead of the seat-hour.
Leave with scope, metrics, and commercial shape you can put in front of a real buyer—not just a demo.
Why VANTIS
HackManila needs a place where teams can think, build, test, and talk without turning the event into a hotel ballroom with Wi-Fi. VANTIS is built for that kind of work.
The venue role is simple: give the community a serious place to gather, then let the builders do what they came to do.
Latest writing
Essays on AI, the Philippine tech scene, and what HackManila is responding to.
Main point
The Philippine BPO sector does not just have an AI tooling problem. It has a pricing problem: selling hours gets weaker when AI compresses the labor needed to produce outcomes.
Read articleMain point
Bernd explains why he started publishing his arguments on AI, work, and the Philippines instead of keeping them private.
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Western policy and buyers will not preserve the offshore labor bargain. They are part of the pressure changing it.
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The Philippines is spending far too little on AI transition relative to the number of IT-BPM workers exposed to disruption.
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Filipino conglomerates have the capital to shape the next phase, but have largely stayed out of building the technology base the country needs.
Read articleMain point
A large share of the country’s BPO export value flows out instead of becoming durable local capability.
Read articleMain point
India built owned technology champions; the Philippines mostly hosted outsourced operations. In the AI shift, ownership matters more.
Read articleMain point
If AI contracts the BPO sector, the damage spreads beyond call centers into households, cities, and local consumption.
Read articleMain point
Headline GDP growth can hide a weakening income base when value creation and local prosperity start to drift apart.
Read articleMain point
The Philippines needs to move from renting out labor to building owned capability before AI ends the old model.
Read articleOfficial updates