THE Artificial Intelligence (AI) industry could potentially contribute 12 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030, a Trade official said.
At an online forum by the Stratbase ADR Institute on Tuesday, May 16, Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba said AI will contribute $92 billion to the GDP in seven years. An AI roadmap has been developed, with the belief that AI will uplift Filipinos and Filipino industries, he said.
“Make the Philippines an AI center of excellence. AI adoption can enable the country to tap vast opportunities,” said Aldaba.
She added that one of the recommendations of the AI Roadmap is the building of the Center for AI Research. It will be a public-private partnership hub for data scientists and researchers to perform collaborative AI research and development and technology application.
“The center would focus on key areas utilizing AI such as precision farming to improve productivity of the agriculture sector and increase incomes of farmers, smart manufacturing, healthcare services, AI-powered business process outsourcing, smart cities, and resilient technology,” said Aldaba.
At the recent AI Summit in Pasay, organizers said AI is the future and can benefit the Philippines. Jokin Aboitiz, head of Corporate Services of Aboitiz Power said, “It’s gonna unlock a lot of business modes that were not economical, not sustainable, or even not imaginable in the past.”
Both Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma and National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan are also quite welcoming of AI technology in the Philippines. They said while there may be some initial job losses, AI will also create new jobs to offset this. (ABS-CBN News)
