Microsoft Assisting in Philippine Digitalization through Artificial Intelligence

The way people study, conduct business, shop, and play has unquestionably altered as a result of the Internet. It took several years to mature into something that genuinely ushered in the modern era of the Internet. The COVID-19 epidemic, however, only required two years to propel technology into the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The Internet became a need for households as people were forced to conduct their business, learn, purchase, and even be entertained online. In addition to increased bandwidth, a demanding consumer base also received new digital goods and services. While startups develop everywhere to capitalize on the expanding market, global corporations are constantly updating and improving their digital systems.

Emerging technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), Web3, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the metaverse, are rapidly being developed in order to keep up with the demand. Digitalization became a priority, with both the public and private sectors striving to transfer physical records into digital systems and platforms.

How widely the need for digitalization is acknowledged is best demonstrated by the Philippine government. National digitalization and digitization was one of the key objectives of the newly elected government, led by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Local businesses are required to digitize records within two months as the nation accelerates its digitalization. Additionally, IT giant Microsoft is assisting them in their effort by utilizing AI.

“A lot of the companies that were not into technology before, they were sort of forced [to digitalize] and they need to continue in order to survive in this kind of environment right now. And also, companies are more adapted to hybrid technology, as well. So, you can work from home, you can work from anywhere,” Cherry Kua, Microsoft financial controller of Philippine operations, said.

Microsoft is one of the major investors of AI research and deployment firm OpenAI, developer of all-around AI platform ChatGPT. According to its website, ChatGPT is a conversational interaction app that allows for it “to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.” It provides professionals and developers ways to perform their tasks faster and more accurately.

Microsoft is also using DALL-E, an OpenAI technology that creates images from descriptions of natural language, to aid Filipino businesses in understanding data. Through the various OpenAI platforms and tools, Microsoft is helping Filipino businesses “extract insights out of data” and, in the end, sort through mountains of data gathered over the years.

Microsoft is collaborating with public and private organizations to help the current and future workforce become more digitally proficient as part of its assistance in this area. In addition to preparing workers to manage new digital systems and processes, this will also give the next generation the skills they need to deal with these cutting-edge technology.

“We are in partnership with DepEd (Department of Education), for instance. We have upskilled millions of students and educators, as well, nationwide. So, that’s actually a local and national initiative. We teach them modern work… We upscale [the skills] of IT managers in the private sector, as well,” Kua explained.

The Philippines is well on its way to achieving its aim of national digitization thanks to the assistance of the tech giant. The Philippines is a shining example of how international IT companies are working together with public institutions and private businesses to advance the development of the digital economy.