By Aaron Michael C. Sy, Reporter
THE DIGITALIZATION of Philippine industries is deepening, with adopters starting to harness its full potential in response to regulation supporting more access to services, industry representatives said.
“In the past 12 months, we see that the questions are now more of: how do I use all this potential? And particularly for those that are in the learning and development in organizations, it’s more around how do you keep up with the best versions and upskill your employees?” Michelle Alarcon, AI Association of the Philippines president, told a panel at the Manila Tech Summit on Tuesday.
However, companies and regulators are working to counteract risks stemming from emerging technologies such artificial intelligence (AI) as adoption accelerates, such as scams, summit participants were told.
Ms. Alarcon said the Analytics and AI Association of the Philippines (AAP) has grown to more than 1,000 members from only 20 last year.
Benito Teehankee, De La Salle University professor of Management and Organization and chairman of the AAP’s Responsible AI Council, noted that the education industry AI push has been hampered by lack of development in rules governing student use.
“Students cannot string sentences together anymore because of their abuse of AI. Let’s put it as plain as that. But teachers are trying to better guide them on how to use it properly,” he said.
Over the last year, organizations have been working to upskill their employees on AI and other digital tools to ensure that humans remain in the loop.
“I think what has happened is people have realized over the last 12 months that… organizations need to be digital-ready and AI ready,” according to Eugene S. Acevedo, an Asian Institute of Management vice chairman and former Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. president and chief executive officer.
He noted that digitalization has been led by regulators upskilling their own workers.
“The good thing is that our Monetary Board was actually first in terms of trying to upskill themselves when it comes to AI and AI strategy. I mean, we’re not expecting them to be technical in terms of AI, but understanding the technology so that when they do discuss policy, they understand the effect and impact of this technology. I think it starts with enabling them with the knowledge.”
Eugene C. Teves, chief information officer of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Technology and Digital Innovation Office, said consumer trust should be the main focus of organizations as digital attacks such as fraud and scams have only become more frequent as digitalization deepens.
“How do we still maintain trust in the financial sector? I think one thing we are encouraging financial institutions to look for is use cases where AI can really secure our financial network. But on top of that, there’s good that AI creates, but there’s also bad. You’ll see a lot more scams, more issues, because of this new AI.”