As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates across the Philippines, ensuring that its benefits reach a broad range of sectors has become critical to driving inclusive and sustainable digital growth.
For 2026, the PLDT Group, the country’s leading telco giant, is positioning the Philippines more prominently in the global AI landscape through a strategy anchored on leadership development, infrastructure investments, and community enablement.
A cornerstone of this strategy is the group’s continued investment in AI-ready infrastructure, including the country’s largest integrated fixed and wireless networks and VITRO Sta. Rosa (VSR)—the Philippines’ first hyperscale data center purpose-built for AI workloads. Inaugurated last year by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, the facility is located in Laguna’s rapidly expanding technology corridor and is developed by VITRO Inc., the group’s data center arm.
VSR also houses Pilipinas AI, the country’s first sovereign AI solutions stack designed to allow Philippine enterprises to deploy advanced AI capabilities without the cost and complexity of building their own infrastructure. As a homegrown solution, Pilipinas AI ensures that data and workloads remain locally hosted, enabling both public and private sector users to access world-class AI tools while maintaining data sovereignty.
To drive this transformation, Blums S. Pineda, Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Business Group, was appointed as the group’s AI Business Lead, reinforcing the telco giant’s focus on building AI capabilities that empower businesses and communities.
“With our AI-ready ecosystem and sustained investments in infrastructure and talent, the telco giant is ready to help Filipino enterprises and communities harness AI to boost productivity, competitiveness, and innovation,” Pineda said.
Advancing responsible AI adoption
Beyond enterprise solutions, the telco giant is advancing a multi-sector push to promote responsible and practical AI use across government, schools and universities, non-government organizations, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), media groups, and community-based organizations.
“We are not just introducing communities to AI—we are championing its responsible and meaningful use,” said Stephanie V. Orlino, Assistant Vice President and Head of Stakeholder Engagement. “Across schools, local government units, enterprises, and media, the telco giant is pushing for AI adoption that improves how people work, serve, and create value in their communities.”
In 2025, the telco giant launched AI-in-a-Box, a digital empowerment initiative designed to bring AI tools, connectivity, training, and support directly to communities. The program has reached local government workers in the Bicol Region and Balanga, Bataan, and has been integrated into education, livelihood, and inclusion programs nationwide.
Supporting media and youth innovation
Working with regional media organizations across Metro Manila, Cebu, Eastern Visayas, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao, the telco giant conducted AI and digital security workshops aimed at modernizing newsroom operations while reinforcing ethical journalism standards.
Media partners across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao were also provided with AI-in-a-Box kits for newsroom use, including connectivity devices and access to premium AI tools for research, analysis, and content development.
Recently, the telco giant also gathered students from Metro Manila universities at the University of the Philippines Diliman for the DATAxYOUTH AI Innovation Challenge, a hackathon that encouraged young innovators to apply AI and data analytics to real-world problems such as disaster response, misinformation, and public infrastructure monitoring.