78% of Filipino workers use AI at work but few receive training — study
MANILA, Philippines — A recent nationwide study by a local software company found that 78% of Filipino employees across 13 industries use artificial intelligence in their daily work, but only 35% receive role-specific training on AI use.
Sprout Solutions, a software-as-a-service company, interviewed 3,516 Filipino employees from May 8 to 29 to determine the role of AI in Philippine workplaces and its effects on productivity and experience of workers.
A little more than half or 51% of the respondents were millennials aged 30 to 45 years old and 42% were Gen Zs aged 14 to 29. Only 6% belong to Gen X, who were around 46 to 61 years old, and 1% were boomers aged 62 to 80.
Most of the respondents, or 27%, said they commonly use AI for tasks involving communication, 23% use it for information processing, while 16% use AI for decision-making.
Roles, industries with most AI use
Companies in the construction industry are the number one embracers of AI in the workplace with 89.1% of adoption rate.
High adoption rates were also recorded in the transportation and storage industry with 86.4% rate, and human health and social work activities with 86.1%.
Seven industries, meanwhile, are emerging as sectors with high AI adoption rates, with 80% to 85% of workers in these fields using artificial intelligence in their jobs. The figures indicate that AI use is becoming more common across various business functions beyond traditionally technology-focused roles.
Among these industries are: wholesale and retail trade, finance and insurance activities, accommodation and food services, real estate activities, information and communication, administrative and support services, and education.
Meanwhile, employees in software development roles were the top users of AI by job function, with a usage rate of 95%.
High levels of AI use were also recorded in roles of Program and Project Management and Human Resources, with 87.8% and 85.9% of usage rates, respectively.
Strong usage of 80% to 82%, meanwhile, was recorded in 10 roles. These roles include Business Development, Community and Social Services, Marketing, Information Technology (IT), Consulting, Research and Development, Legal and Compliance, Customer Support, Sales and Media and Communications.
Lack of training
Despite high rates of AI adoption in several companies and usage among various job functions, respondents of the study also admitted that they lack training or upskilling programs that are designed specifically to fit the demands of their roles at work.
Only 35% of the workers involved in the study said their company provided AI upskilling programs that are specific to their employment roles.
Twenty-nine percent said their companies do not provide any AI upskilling training at all, while 36% were unsure.
Sprout Solutions clarified that the findings of their study do not mean that the companies in which their respondents work have no existing AI-use training at all.
“Some organizations may provide generic AI training but have not tailored it to specific role-based tasks. The large share of employees who are unsure also indicates a gap in visibility or communication of existing AI learning programs,” their study read.
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