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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider The Economy devider 9 in 10 Philippine firms bet on AI-led growth—Alibaba Cloud survey

9 in 10 Philippine firms bet on AI-led growth—Alibaba Cloud survey

Published Jul 30, 2026 11:18 am

Philippine enterprises are among Asia’s most optimistic about artificial intelligence (AI), with 91 percent holding a positive attitude toward its adoption, according to a survey commissioned by Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing and AI arm of China’s Alibaba Group.

Results of Alibaba Cloud’s “The AI Business Application Readiness and Accessibility Survey” released on Wednesday, July 29, showed that 57 percent of Philippine enterprises were “very positive,” actively exploring or implementing the technology.

The survey also found that 74 percent of Philippine enterprises had migrated all or most of their information technology (IT) infrastructure to the cloud, providing a solid foundation for AI adoption.

Local businesses primarily view AI as a growth engine, with 68 percent citing innovation and new business opportunities as a strategic objective. This was followed by cost savings and efficiency at 54 percent, improved customer experience at 51 percent, competitive advantage at 50 percent, and revenue growth potential at 39 percent.

“The pace of AI adoption in the Philippines is driven by two factors: large enterprises are pursuing AI initiatives as part of their top-level strategic digital transformation, while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are adopting software to meet their operational needs for cost reduction and efficiency improvement,” Alibaba Cloud Philippines head of solutions architect Grant Gong said in a statement.

Gong also noted that Philippine businesses in the financial and retail sectors showed particularly strong enthusiasm for adopting AI.

Despite the optimism, Philippine enterprises continue to face barriers to broader AI adoption. Data privacy and security concerns ranked as the top local challenge, cited by 51 percent of respondents, followed by high implementation costs at 41 percent.

Across the eight Asian markets covered by the survey, 99 percent of respondents considered AI a priority, while 95 percent of surveyed companies intended to increase investment in AI products. More than half planned to raise their budgets by over 20 percent across infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and model-as-a-service (MaaS).

Alibaba Cloud commissioned independent research firm NielsenIQ (NIQ) to survey 1,000 ITDMs evenly distributed across eight Asian markets in mid-2025.

Respondents came from the Philippines, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, spanning industries including internet and technology, manufacturing, professional and financial services, retail, the public sector, and others, with organizations ranging from startups to large enterprises. - Danielle T. Bayani

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