05-22-2026 
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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 that policy progress has not kept pace with execution speed.
“We’re definitely behind and it’s something we need to recognize,” Ramos said. “We have progressed around governance and policy. AI infrastructure is our focus now.”
Data center capacity in the country is expected to reach 1.5 gigawatts by 2028, potentially increasing demand for AI processing and cloud-based services, Aguda said. A study from global tech advisory firm Access Partnerships claimed that Philippine companies can unlock up to PHP 2.8 trillion ($45 billion) in economic value by 2030 through AI alone.
Despite the positive figures, Jonathan Cristobal, head of Global Business, said uneven readiness puts constraints on AI adoption. He added that “infrastructure, workforce capability remains challenged, together with governance and digital maturity. All of these continue to vary organization per organization.” Firms are increasingly willing to integrate AI into their operations, Cristobal said, but they are hindered by execution and scaling strategies, stating that the government must prioritize and incentivize retraining.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Philippines Economist Mohamed Shahudh acknowledged that high interest rates, limited digital literacy, and fragmented governance constrain the development of AI, saying, “AI’s benefits to humanity will be realized through a much more complex interaction of two widening gaps: capability and vulnerability; across three pillars of human development: people, economy and governance.”
To address this gap, Mel Migrino, country head of Gogolook Philippines, said public-private partnerships could accelerate adoption, especially in developing AI for cybersecurity frameworks. However, the tech’s impact will greatly depend on how governments, companies, and workers manage risks alongside productivity gains.
“At the DICT, our view is simple: rules must be principle-based and flexible,” Aguda emphasized. “Technology moves too fast for rigid regulation. That’s why we are strengthening our national AI strategy roadmap, embedding ethics, transparency, accountability, and human oversight into how AI is used in the country.”The Philippines stance on AI adoption
In 2024, a report by the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Global Advantage Practice shed light on the adoption of generative AI in the Philippines. It revealed that 43% of Filipino professionals expressed conflicting emotions toward generative AI. While 38% of professionals expressed enthusiasm for AI’s transformative potential, and 19% harbors concern.
Although the 2024 survey showed mixed enthusiasm toward AI, a webinar by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies this May disclosed that AI adoption is creating new jobs, despite LGUs lagging behind AI readiness due to constraints caused by weak internet connectivity, limited technical capacity, and inadequate digital investment.
“AI policy adoption in ASEAN has lagged significantly behind the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, and within the Philippines, internet access is also a concern,” Francis Mark Quimba, research associate at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, said. “The intent is there, but the implementation and budget allocation are not.”
A policy note from the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) indicated that there is a strong consumer interest in AI in the Philippines. However, this interest is not supported by sufficient institutional capacity, placing the country near the bottom among its Southeast Asian peers in AI readiness.
“Filipinos are among the most active in the region in engaging with AI-related tools, but digital infrastructure and innovation capability remain its weakest pillars,” PIDS said. “This structural curiosity-capacity gap helps explain why AI adoption in the financial sector has been gradual, despite strong consumer-driven digital engagement.”
As of now, the Philippines has an AI index score of 0.5, which is higher than Vietnam’s score of 0.48 but lower than Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore, which scored 0.52, 0.54, and 0.8, respectively.
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