Filipinos and AI Readiness: Why Outdated Metrics Don’t Tell the Whole Story

We rank low in AI readiness? Based on whose metrics?

Foreign think tanks love to remind us how unprepared the Philippines is for AI and digital transformation: citing low digital skills, weak infrastructure, and poor government readiness.

And yet… we run the second largest BPO industry in the world, processing millions of digital tasks daily, for some of the biggest tech companies. We’re not just ready, we’re already doing the work.

📉 One side of the story: surveys from Oxford Insights and Descartes Institute.

📈 The other side: actual behavior, Filipinos are among the most curious and engaged in the world when it comes to AI, according to Electronics Hub, World Bank, and even Microsoft’s own data.

So what gives?

Simple: we're being judged by outdated yardsticks. Metrics built for other economies, not for countries like ours where informal learning thrives and digital workers build AI readiness on the job, not in the classroom.

Here’s the truth: Filipinos are adapting faster than the systems meant to support them.

💥 We don’t need pity rankings. We need investment.

💥 We don’t need to be told we’re behind. We need recognition for what we’ve already achieved.

💥 We don’t need a “wait and see” approach. We need a bold AI literacy movement... NOW.

Let’s stop letting outsiders define our digital destiny. If you're in government, business, or education, this is your wake-up call.

We’re not behind. We’re being underestimated.

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