P4.9-T AI Projected Revenues at PH at Risk

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – Unless the stakeholders of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Philippines do something, the P4.9 trillion projected incomes from it for ten years will be prejudiced.

SPEAKER. IAmContact Solutions Chief Operation Officer Nestor Feland Panopio (3^rd from left) shows his Certificate of Appreciation as resource speaker from the officers of Eventually Events PH after the A.I Technology Seminar sponsored by Eventually PH and Philippines-Zhangzhou General Chamber of Commerce Inc. held recently at the Blackscoop Cafe in Dagupan City.

“I want you to put that in your mind: P4.9 trillion! This is actually the amount projected by the International Monetary Fund that can be generated with the use of AI. So maraming industry ang puedeng gamitan ng AI. So can you imagine if we can take part of that P4.9 trillion kahit 1% lang ng P4.9 trillion maraming pera na iyan,” according to IAmContact Solutions Chief Operation Officer Nestor Feland Panopio, one of the three resource speakers of the AI Technology Seminar sponsored by Eventually Events PH and Philippines-Zhangzhou General Chamber of Commerce Inc. held recently at the Blackscoop Cafe here.

Panopio presented that the system in the country is not conducive for A.I to thrive.

“Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is a huge dichotomy of AI in the Philippines. With personal use there is a high personnel employment versus low institutional readiness,” he stressed.

Even AI photos, videos, and others through Nano Banana, ChatGPT, and others are ubiquitous nowadays at social media like Facebook, Panopio deplored however that the business and government sectors poorly used these technologies to buttress their stocks.

“Pero on the other hand you notice that commercial establishment and even the government for that matter don’t used AI that much gaya pag kukuha tayo ng permit mano-mano. Some institutions, LGUs (local government units) paper trail pa rin kailangan nila pag kumuha ng permit. There is a lot of commercial establishment now that does not adapt to AI. Kung gaano kalaki ng popularity ng AI ganoon naman kababa ang pagamit ng industriya kababa pagdating ng AI,” Panopio explained to attendees who come from LGUs, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Interior and Local Government, academe like those from the Pangasinan State University in Lingayen and University of Eastern Pangasinan in Binalonan, business, and others.

The weaknesses of these sectors, as Panopio expounded, prejudiced the P4.9 trillion supposed growth in the next ten years in the Philippines.

He said that the national government ranked last on AI account where it got 35.7 points over 100 points readiness while the business sector is at worse at 14.9% over 100%.

“Most of our businesses use mano-mano na process in their business”.

He said that 30% of the jobs at the call centers are at risk if the stakeholders in the country did not heed the call to correct their weaknesses.

According to an AI Overview, this technology could give the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the country a shift to higher value services where their personnel transition from commoditized tasks to complex, tech-enabled processes that require human oversight and strategy.  AI can make the average Filipino workers "super employees," benefiting the workforce through increased productivity and capabilities. It can also empower grassroots entrepreneurs and Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) to scale faster, cut costs, and innovate within a digital economy.  By moving beyond servicing global markets to actively shaping them with AI-driven solutions and ethical frameworks, Filipinos can lead in the digital economy.