CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across Mindanao can leverage accessible artificial intelligence tools to optimize operational efficiency and increase profitability despite operating with limited capital resources.
Ambe Tierro, country managing director and technology lead of global professional services firm Accenture in the Philippines, stressed this decentralized approach, noting that small businesses in the provinces can immediately access free, niche digital services to safeguard their core operations. According to Tierro, these tools allow provincial enterprises to compete effectively without requiring massive infrastructure investments.
“There are a lot of technologies now that are very specific, very niche. Depending on whether it’s sales, using AIR for their marketing, using AI for their supply chain, it can already help,” Tierro stated during an industry media briefing.
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The integration of automated systems addresses a critical macroeconomic bottleneck in the southern regions. While MSMEs comprise roughly 99 percent of all business establishments in the Philippines and support 65 percent of the workforce, their collective contribution to the country’s annual domestic output sits at only 35 percent.
To correct this imbalance, national line agencies are rolling out capitalization measures and technical frameworks specifically designed to scale rural and provincial business operations. Prominent among these initiatives is the National AI Strategy Roadmap 2.0, implemented by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
The national roadmap explicitly identifies Mindanao as a significant hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure and research through several foundational developments. Under this framework, four of the eight higher education institutions selected to host dedicated AI data centers equipped with high-performance computing servers are located in Mindanao. These host institutions include Caraga State University (CarSU), the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UPMin), the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP), and Mindanao State University-Naawan (MSU-Naawan).
While the roadmap does not itemize individual budgets for each university, these data centers fall under a broader facilities strategy. This strategy targets an aggregate milestone funding of P483 million for initial infrastructure and research solutions, alongside P200 million for subsequent phases.
Furthermore, a dedicated AI Center already operates in Davao City. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Central Office is considering absorbing the facility into its GATES Program to scale regional computing access. Although current project lists omit the center's specific operating budget, the facility aligns with the roadmap's long-term funding goal of 500 million pesos per year for regional research and development solutions.
Tierro confirmed that the DTI structured the roadmap partly around policy recommendations from the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC). President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. created the advisory body in 2022 to assist the government with real-world ideas to drive the domestic economy, accelerate infrastructure, create jobs, and ensure a sustainable business environment outside major urban capitals.
By prioritizing technology diffusion, the framework aims to break the concentration of advanced computing tools within the National Capital Region (NCR).
“It becomes an instrument for diffusion. So, rather than AI being concentrated in NCR or on the big enterprises then if you have more SMEs participating, using, applying it, then you can use the technology. So, it’s not exclusive,” Tierro explained.
This infrastructure push underpins several active, localized research and development projects tailored to regional needs, backed by specific state allocations. These include an ongoing initiative to build a comprehensive speech corpus for the Meranaw language to improve localized linguistic software models, which has a total budget allocation of P3,322,347.80.
Public safety systems are also expanding through regional research programs. National line agencies allocated P4,299,025.39 to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Northern Mindanao for its active recidivism evaluation and forecasting project, while the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office uses 3,039,936 pesos to develop an advanced risk reduction analytics system.
National line agencies allocated P4,299,025.39 to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Northern Mindanao for its active recidivism evaluation and forecasting project, while the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office uses P3,039,936 to develop an advanced risk reduction analytics system.
Enterprise leaders emphasize that widespread technology adoption across Mindanao’s logistically complex supply chains will also improve baseline digital literacy for rural workforces.
“If more people can use it, first of all, you demystify it because if you know AI, you know it cannot do everything. Because sometimes, there’s this notion that AI will solve everything, will do anything. Of course, it can’t. So, you kind of demystify it. So, everybody gets more fluent. That’s also part of the literacy,” Tierro added.
