MANILA, Philippines (Jul 2026) — Local business leaders are overwhelmingly optimistic about bringing artificial intelligence into their operations, viewing it as a tool for growth rather than just a way to cut costs.
A regional survey shows that 91 percent of Philippine enterprises hold a positive attitude toward adopting AI, slightly higher than the Asian average of 90 percent. Among these local firms, 57 percent are very positive and are already actively exploring or implementing the technology. This corporate ambition is backed by a solid infrastructure, with 74 percent of local businesses having already migrated most or all of their IT systems to the cloud.
Choosing growth over cost-cutting
Instead of using automation simply to trim budgets, local companies are treating AI as an engine to expand their reach. Driving innovation and unlocking new business opportunities lead the strategic goals for 68 percent of respondents. This places growth well ahead of other corporate priorities, such as saving money and increasing efficiency at 54 percent, improving customer experience at 51 percent, gaining a competitive advantage at 50 percent and boosting revenue at 39 percent.
However, the transition comes with clear roadblocks. Data privacy and security stand out as the primary barrier for 51 percent of local firms, while high implementation costs worry 41 percent of decision-makers.
Different approaches for big firms and SMEs
The momentum behind tech adoption changes depending on the size of the company. Grant Gong, head of solutions architect for Alibaba Cloud Philippines, stated that large corporations are pursuing AI initiatives as a core part of their top-level digital transformation. On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises are adopting targeted software to meet immediate operational needs like reducing overhead and improving day-to-day efficiency.
Enthusiasm is particularly strong among Philippine businesses operating in the financial and retail sectors.
These insights come from the AI Business Application Readiness and Accessibility Survey, which polled 1,000 IT decision-makers across eight Asian markets, including the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
