AI in Southeast Asia
All of Southeast Asia

AI in Philippines

01

Who is using AI

Philippines

21%
People using generative AIMicrosoft AI Diffusion Report, 2026-Q2
0.4
Claude use per personAnthropic Economic Index, 2026-05
92
ChatGPT messages per person, world rankOpenAI Signals, 2026-Q2

02

What governments are doing

Philippines

Verified September 29, 2026

Strategy
National AI Strategy for the Philippines (NAIS-PH)2025
AI law
Artificial Intelligence Development and Regulation Act (consolidated House substitute bill) and Senate Bill No. 25, Artificial Intelligence Regulation Act (AIRA)Draft, July 14, 2026
Guidance
DICT-CSC Joint Memorandum Circular No. 003, s. 2026: Principles for the Ethical and Responsible Development, Deployment, and Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Government2026
Lead agency
Department of Science and Technology (DOST), lead for NAIS-PH and operator of NAICRI; shared with DICT (AI infrastructure and public-sector AI governance) and DTI (industry adoption, CAIR)
Data law
Republic Act No. 10173, Data Privacy Act of 2012Enacted, September 8, 2012
Sector rules
Latest
DICT launched the Philippine AI+ Infrastructure Masterplan 2026-2033 (PAIIM), approved by the President as chair of the Economy and Development Council, targeting USD 34.4 billion in public and private investment and growth of AI data-centre capacity from about 50 MW to 1.5 GW by 2033.September 8, 2026

Lead-agency question: three departments share AI policy and the answer has shifted. DTI owned the 2021 NAISR and the July 2024 NAISR 2.0 plus CAIR; since the President approved DOST's NAIS-PH in May 2025 the strategy has been DOST-led (NAICRI launched 2026-02-26), while DICT owns AI infrastructure (PAIIM 2026-2033), public-sector AI governance (JMC 003 with CSC) and data residency (EO 119), and the House substitute bill would seat a Philippine AI Commission under DICT whereas SB 852 would put a council under DOST. Editors should not describe NAISR 2.0 as the current national strategy without qualification; the CAIR site itself calls it superseded, though no DTI page formally withdraws it. No dedicated AI statute exists and none has passed either chamber; bill counts (about 40 House and 7 Senate measures per Rappler, 2026-06-06) change weekly and the 20th Congress runs to mid-2028. HB 7396 cited by some trackers is a 19th Congress number and is not the live vehicle. The DICT-CSC JMC is binding on government bodies even though it is listed here under framework, because it is the closest thing to cross-cutting AI governance guidance and its reach into private vendors is only contractual. BSP memoranda are guidance (non-binding) rather than circulars. DOH has issued no AI rule; its activity is advisory (2025-10-21 warning on AI for mental health) and membership of the HealthAI GRN (2026-03-18). The Data Privacy Act took effect 15 days after publication; 2012-09-08 is the commonly cited date and the full text was read on lawphil.net because the Official Gazette is behind Cloudflare. Local name for NAIS-PH is a pun on 'nais' (Filipino for 'wish'). A draft cross-cutting 'AI Governance Framework' was reported in early 2026 as in finalization but no official document was found. Do not cite the naisr.cair.ph site as DTI's own domain; it is a CAIR reference page. Web search budget was exhausted mid-audit; later checks used Google through the built-in browser.

03

What researchers are finding

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Government and rules

How Ready Are LGUs for AI Adoption?

Measures the readiness of Philippine local governments to deploy AI and finds wide variation in digital infrastructure, staff capability and data governance across LGUs.

Working paper · December 1, 2025 · PIDS Discussion Paper No. 2025-48

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam highlightedSoutheast Asia, Brunei +10

Government and rules

AI Safety Governance, the Southeast Asian Way

Surveys AI safety and governance moves in every Southeast Asian country, including Timor-Leste, and argues the region is converging on a pragmatic, development-first model distinct from EU or US approaches.

Report · August 25, 2025 · Brookings Governance Studies report

04

What people are saying

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines highlightedSoutheast Asia, Malaysia +5

The Southeast Asia Desk (Substack)Analysis

The cost of the cloud: Inside Southeast Asia's $30B data centre trilemma

Fredrick Samuel Haryanto and Alvin Qobulsyah · September 28, 2026

Frames the region's AI data-centre rush as a trilemma of power grids, water depletion and community consent, using the Johor protests as the warning case. The explainer argues the build-out will not stop, so the region must decide who bears its costs.

Published as the Jakarta-based newsletter's weekly 'Regional Line' feature.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Philippine Daily InquirerOpinion

The making of the true us

Inez Ponce de Leon · September 23, 2026

A communication professor recounts a faculty meeting where advertising clients now demand AI-made campaigns even though audiences reject them, and argues that the slow craft of writing, reading and creating is what builds empathy and judgment. She frames the anger as directed not at AI but at those who use it to displace paid creative labour.

Connects to Pope Leo XIV's call for AI oversight and to consumer backlash against AI-generated content.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

BusinessWorldOpinion

Solving real governance problems with AI

Editorial · September 23, 2026

One year after the E-Governance Act, the columnist argues AI's job in Philippine government is narrow and practical: reduce discretion that breeds delay and corruption, flag anomalous transactions and improve revenue collection. The piece stresses that AI is no cure for weak institutions and cites PIDS data showing only about 15 percent of local firms use AI.

Ties to the E-Governance Act's first anniversary and to corruption scandals in infrastructure spending.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Philippine Daily InquirerOpinion

AI might just be the death of us

Immanuel D. Pastolero · September 18, 2026

Citing warnings from former Anthropic and OpenAI researchers, the July OpenAI agent breach of Hugging Face and a US bill to pause superintelligence, the columnist argues the Philippines cannot treat frontier AI risk as a distant concern. He calls for the country to prepare guard rails, policies and data-infrastructure protections now rather than after harm arrives.

Responds to the September 2026 spike in AI-extinction warnings from inside frontier labs.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Philippine Daily InquirerOpinion

Business imperatives for recovery

Cielito F. Habito · September 8, 2026

The former socioeconomic planning secretary sets out five things Philippine business should do while government is distracted by the 2028 elections, with aggressive investment in technology and AI as the third imperative because the country's labour cost advantage is eroding. AI is framed as a productivity tool that must be paired with worker training.

Written as the Philippines slid to the bottom of the ASEAN-6 growth table and the 2027 budget was being debated.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

RapplerOpinion

[OPINION] Will Pax Silica be another proverbial fish that got away for the Philippines?

Den Somera · September 4, 2026

Somera argues that Pax Silica must not be treated as a leisurely masterplan: the Philippines should lock in binding corporate commitments, joint ventures and physical groundbreaking while its geopolitical value to Western allies is at its peak. Otherwise the AI and chip supply-chain opportunity will slip away as earlier industrial chances did.

Follows up the July debate on Pax Silica in Rappler's Thought Leaders section.

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore highlightedSoutheast Asia, Indonesia +3

The Interpreter (Lowy Institute)Opinion

The quiet regionalisation of AI governance

Sameera Pillai · September 3, 2026

Argues that with global AI rule-making stalled by superpower rivalry, regional blocs are where binding rules are actually being made, and that ASEAN's move to embed AI provisions in its Digital Economy Framework Agreement is the leading example. Accepts fragmentation as the price of progress, to be softened by shared technical standards.

Builds on the coordinated Grok bans by Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and the May 2026 conclusion of the ASEAN DEFA.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Gulf NewsOpinion

Philippines' AI hub push faces skills, power generation and jobs test

Jay Hilotin · September 3, 2026

Argues the Pax Silica hub near Manila, pitched at tens of billions in investment and well over 100,000 jobs, will stand or fall on workforce skills, power capacity and how displacement from automation is handled. The country's English-speaking workforce is an asset only if it moves from services into making AI systems.

Written as Oxford Economics and local think tanks published AI-exposure estimates for Filipino workers.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

BusinessWorldOpinion

The impact of artificial intelligence on the youth: Liberal Arts

Editorial · September 2, 2026

Part five of a series on AI and young people, the column takes Pope Leo XIV's point that AI is making old curricula obsolete and argues that a liberal arts education gives graduates the flexibility to keep learning. It cites US NAEP evidence of falling reading comprehension to argue for more long-form reading and handwriting alongside selective use of digital tools.

Part of the Philippine Catholic-intellectual response to the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Philippine Daily Inquirer (Technology)Opinion

Pax Silica: Can the Philippines move up the AI supply chain?

Rich Longakit · August 30, 2026

Asks where the US-led Pax Silica initiative and the proposed 4,000-acre AI hub in New Clark City actually place the Philippines in the semiconductor and AI supply chain, given the country already exports tens of billions in electronics but mostly at the assembly and test end. The question is whether the deal buys technological control or just makes the country more useful to industries controlled elsewhere.

Responds to the April 2026 accession to Pax Silica and the New Clark City hub proposal.

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore highlightedSoutheast Asia, Myanmar +2

The Interpreter (Lowy Institute)Opinion

No, Mark Zuckerberg, the future is not (yet) for everyone

Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano and Brendan Luyt · August 28, 2026

A Southeast Asian rejoinder to Meta's promise of superintelligence for all, arguing that access without infrastructure, local relevance and accountability simply scales harm, as Meta's record in Myanmar and Philippine elections showed. Asks who controls distribution and who captures the benefits.

Responds to Zuckerberg's superintelligence manifesto and to regional capability gaps in compute and chips.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

The Interpreter (Lowy Institute)Opinion

Beyond the 4am scramble: AI for Philippine maritime safety

Joy Dianne Gumatay · August 21, 2026

A Philippine Coast Guard communications officer argues that an AI-assisted reporting system could cut the hours-long lag between district reports and public maritime safety advisories during storm season, and proposes Australia as the partner to build it. Illustrates a practical, low-glamour public-sector AI use case.

Connects to Australia-Philippines maritime cooperation and disaster-response coordination.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

RapplerOpinion

[OPINION] Will AI take Filipino jobs? The answer depends on what we do now

Khalid Hassan · August 18, 2026

Drawing on the ECCP Future of Work Forum, the author argues AI will reshape rather than erase Filipino jobs, and pairs the AI transition with the clean-energy transition as twin sources of new work. He proposes a Better Energy Alliance linking firms, government and training institutions so investment translates into decent jobs.

Connects to BPO-displacement fears and the 2026 Future of Work Forum in Manila.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

Rest of WorldOpinion

Growth without work: The human cost of the AI revolution

Jibu Elias · August 5, 2026

Argues that AI is automating cognitive work fastest in the Global South, where workers have least access to augmentation, producing economic growth that bypasses employment. Uses displaced Filipino transcriptionists and call-centre staff as the leading example of the pattern.

Connects to the BPO sector's exposure to generative AI and the Philippine Magna Carta for BPO Workers debate.

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines highlightedSoutheast Asia, Thailand +4

FulcrumOpinion

Southeast Asia Cannot Fight Online Sexual Abuse One Takedown at a Time

Nuurrianti Jalli · July 31, 2026

Argues that takedown-and-prosecute approaches cannot keep up with generative AI tools that mass-produce non-consensual sexual imagery, and that regulators should impose systemic duties on platforms to assess risk and design in safeguards. Matters because the Grok episode showed how quickly synthetic abuse scales across the region.

Follows the early-2026 Grok bans in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and draws on Australian and EU online-safety models.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

RapplerOpinion

[OPINION] Pax Silica and the Philippines: Will we build the future or simply build it for others?

Raul F Borjal · July 31, 2026

Borjal welcomes the Philippines' entry into the US-led Pax Silica semiconductor and AI initiative but asks whether the country will become a creator of technology or remain a supplier of labour and minerals. He argues the deal must include technology transfer, research partnerships and support for local innovation.

Responds to Manila joining Pax Silica in mid-2026.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines, Southeast Asia highlightedPhilippines, Southeast Asia

RapplerOpinion

[OPINION] China aims to rewrite AI rules

Chester Cabalza, Ralph Romulus Arias Frondoza, Amadeus Quiaoit · July 15, 2026

Security analysts argue that Beijing is using the Shanghai World AI Conference and its new World AI Cooperation Organization to position itself as architect of the global AI order and to marshal Global South votes. They urge the Philippines and its neighbours to set a policy floor of their own rather than applaud.

Published two days before the WAICO launch that Cambodia and Myanmar joined as founding members.

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia highlightedSoutheast Asia, Singapore +5

Asia Society Policy Institute (Asia Policy Substack)Analysis

ASEAN Hedges With Pax Silica

Faye Simanjuntak · July 8, 2026

Examines why only Singapore and the Philippines have joined the US-led Pax Silica initiative to secure AI and semiconductor supply chains, while other ASEAN states prefer bilateral trade and critical-minerals deals with Washington. Argues the pattern reflects doubts about US commitment and a belief that bilateral arrangements deliver similar benefits without formal geopolitical alignment, with US restrictions on advanced AI models undercutting trust.

Responds to the Trump administration's Pax Silica push and its AI export package for allies.

Map of Southeast Asia with Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines highlightedSoutheast Asia, Malaysia +5

Tech for Good InstituteOpinion

The Balancing Act: Harmonising AI Development and Governance in Southeast Asia

Bryan Yeoh Quan Jin and Calvin Woo · July 6, 2026

Argues that with nearly half of regional firms scaling AI beyond pilots, Southeast Asia needs governance that combines ASEAN-level coordination with national rules suited to a multilingual, multicultural region. Surveys the spectrum from Vietnam's binding law to Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia's soft-law approaches and Malaysia's proposed bill.

Written by Malaysia's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution as Malaysia drafts its AI Governance Bill and ASEAN finalises DEFA.

Map of Southeast Asia with Philippines highlightedPhilippines

UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance (Philippine delegation)Official statement

Philippine National Statement at the First Global Dialogue on AI Governance

Government of the Philippines (speaker not named in the text) · July 6, 2026

Argues that countries do not enter the AI era from the same starting point and that global norms must recognise gaps in infrastructure, expertise, data and compute. Offers three propositions: developing countries must shape AI governance in both process and outcome; governance must protect human dignity, decent work and public trust; and interoperability should enable cooperation without forcing uniformity on national policy space.

Delivered in Geneva at the UN's first government-level AI governance dialogue, a year after the Philippines approved its national AI strategy.