Artificial intelligence (AI) is seen as a transformative tool in empowering small businesses, especially in mentorship, Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion said.

Concepcion, who is also the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) Philippines chair, said that like social media, AI is also an excellent tool for small businesses to gain access to mentorship on entrepreneurship.

"AI can guide many of our MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), parang mentor na din iyan (it can also be a mentor)," he said in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon interview on Wednesday, May 28.

"But what if—and we have a lot of mentors, but we don’t have enough to mentor all MSMEs, but to AI talking and if you have seen how ChatGPT works, apply that on entrepreneurship and on mentorship on entrepreneurship, then the learning capacity of our MSMEs will be there," he added.

"So, we mentor during weekends but we can’t mentor all the time. There are times that not all mentors are available. We try our best. So, this AI will really help a lot of our MSMEs," Concepcion further said.

The Go Negosyo founder also said that AI greatly helps his organization in reaching more entrepreneurs in the country, especially those who are in far-flung areas.

"So, iyong focus ng Go Negosyo, halos 20 years na kami dito na tumutulong sa mga MSMEs (So, the focus of Go Negosyo, we've been helping MSMEs for 20 years now), we can’t do it, you know the traditional way all the time, because we will only reach hundreds of people, but if you wanna reached thousands and thousands of people, we have to teach them on how to enable themselves through the social media and how to use AI.  It’s not very hard to use AI," he said.

Concepcion, however, said that they have to make MSMEs realize that they are part of the digital evolution, especially with the hosting of the Philippines of the ASEAN Summit in 2026.

He stressed that AI is the path forward.

"So technology, digitalization is really happening and as a big business, we have all these tools. So what we want to do is make our MSMEs realized that the hosting of the ASEAN in 2026 is not only for those big businessmen, it is mainly going to  be also focused on our micro, small and medium enterprises because the only solution to economic empowerment is enabling our MSME to learn more about  digitalization and AI," he said.

"I mean, there is no other way  around this thing, in other words, they can--with the power of the phone, with the power up the App, these are all accessible and this is where we are going to shift, we are going shift teaching them on how to digitalize their business, themselves in fact, and learn. I’m sure all their children know what AI is," the ASEAN-BAC Philippines chair furthered.

President Marcos, during his participation at the 46th ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, expressed his support to the establishment of an ASEAN Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence, a proposed AI engagement platform, which he called a "strategic approach to digital governance."