Businesses in the Philippines are among the most optimistic in Asia when it comes to adopting artificial intelligence (AI), with 91% expressing a positive outlook toward the technology, according to a new survey commissioned by Alibaba Cloud.
The report, titled “The AI Business Application Readiness and Accessibility Survey,” found that 57% of Philippine respondents are “very positive” about AI, actively exploring or already implementing AI-powered solutions within their organizations.
The findings underscore the country’s growing digital maturity, with 74% of surveyed businesses reporting that all or most of their IT infrastructure has already been migrated to the cloud, providing a strong foundation for AI deployment.
AI seen as a growth driver
Rather than viewing AI primarily as a cost-cutting tool, Philippine companies see it as a catalyst for innovation and business growth.
Among local respondents, 68% identified driving innovation and creating new business opportunities as their top reason for investing in AI. Other key objectives included improving operational efficiency and reducing costs (54%), enhancing customer experience (51%), gaining a competitive advantage (50%), and increasing revenue (39%).
“The research findings reinforce Alibaba Cloud’s belief that AI, delivered on top of scalable, secure cloud infrastructure and models, will be the defining technology platform for the next decade,” said Dr. Feifei Li, Chief Technology Officer and President of International Business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group.
She added that the company is focusing on building a comprehensive “agentic cloud” infrastructure that enables businesses to develop AI-powered products capable of delivering real-world outcomes.
Companies plan to increase AI spending
The survey also found that AI investment is accelerating across Asia, with 95% of respondents planning to increase spending on AI-related technologies.
More than half intend to raise budgets by over 20% across infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and model-as-a-service (MaaS).
Investment priorities remain strongest in cloud infrastructure, with 69% planning significant increases in IaaS spending, followed by 61% for PaaS and 58% for MaaS solutions.
The research indicates that AI is rapidly moving beyond experimentation, with 75% of Asian companies now considering AI indispensable to their business operations. Around 90% have already begun adopting AI development platforms and foundation models.
Privacy, cost remain key challenges
Despite the enthusiasm, businesses continue to face several obstacles in scaling AI initiatives.
Among Philippine respondents, data privacy and security emerged as the biggest concern, cited by 51% of organizations. High implementation costs followed at 41%.
Across the region, companies also pointed to limited in-house expertise, regulatory compliance, integration challenges, unclear return on investment, and resistance from senior management as barriers to wider AI adoption.
Demand grows for integrated AI and cloud solutions
The survey found that businesses increasingly prefer providers offering integrated AI and cloud services.
About 45% of respondents favored fully integrated AI-plus-cloud platforms, while 34% preferred solutions that can operate across multiple cloud providers. Only 16% favored standalone AI models without accompanying cloud infrastructure.
Companies said integrated platforms simplify deployment, strengthen security and governance, centralize data management, and provide clearer cost control through flexible pricing models.
Need for industry-specific solutions
Although 91% of respondents said AI products are generally available in their markets, many noted a shortage of end-to-end solutions tailored to specific industries.
Businesses identified customized AI applications for industry use cases (54%), access to AI talent and skills (49%), and more affordable solutions (45%) as their top support requirements. They also called for more real-world case studies, vendor-led training, and stronger executive sponsorship to accelerate AI adoption.
According to Grant Gong, Head of Solutions Architect at Alibaba Cloud Philippines, AI adoption in the country is being driven by both large enterprises pursuing digital transformation initiatives and small and medium-sized businesses seeking greater operational efficiency.
Gong noted that companies in the financial services and retail sectors have shown particularly strong interest in AI technologies.
Local language support gaining importance
The report also highlighted the growing importance of multilingual AI capabilities across Asia.
While English remains widely used, many businesses now prefer AI models that support local languages. Markets such as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand cited the lack of high-quality local-language AI models as a challenge to broader adoption.
Alibaba Cloud said its Qwen family of large language models supports more than 200 languages and dialects, helping address the increasing demand for multilingual AI applications across the region.
About the survey
The survey was conducted by independent research firm NielsenIQ (NIQ) on behalf of Alibaba Cloud in mid-2025. It gathered responses from 1,000 IT decision-makers across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand, representing industries including technology, manufacturing, financial services, retail, and the public sector.