Philippines chases AI gains despite readiness gap: forum
Industry leaders, government officials, and development economists converged at a BusinessWorld forum on May 18 to map out the Philippines‘ AI future—and confronted a shared concern: the country’s ambitions are outpacing its infrastructure, workforce, and governance capacity. AI governance and the future of AI in the Philippines AI governance should align innovation with safeguards and protection: this was the message of the Philippines Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda in the forum. He stressed the need for trust to widen AI adoption and claimed that the DICT is prioritizing data protection and cybersecurity as AI tools become more embedded in public services and businesses. “AI governance can‘t be about choosing between innovation and protection. We need both. And what we really need to protect is trust. Because without trust, adoption slows down, and the benefits won’t reach the people who need them most,” he said. “AI is not coming; it‘s already here. It’s already part of how we work, learn and deliver services.” According to Deloitte Philippines Country Head Ramon Chito Ramos, although AI adoption is improving among enterprises, human capability is slowing its adoption. He highlighted the need to upgrade digital infrastructure to support AI workloads, while also noting