Only 12% of organizations in the Philippines are adequately prepared to maximize their artificial intelligence (AI) investments, according to the latest Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025.
The global study by US networking and technology giant Cisco revealed that while 80% of organizations worldwide feel mounting pressure to deliver tangible returns from AI, the majority lack the strategy and infrastructure needed to achieve them.
In the Philippines, this gap is particularly pronounced. Just 12% of local companies — compared to 13% globally — have the systems, data architecture, and governance frameworks in place to fully benefit from their AI projects.
“This year we saw an increase in expectations for businesses to show demonstrable returns from AI, but readiness remains stubbornly low,” said Ben Dawson, Cisco senior vice president for Asia Pacific, Japan, and Greater China.
“There is a significant disconnect — ambition is high, but readiness is low. When these two collide, value is at risk,” added Simon Miceli, Cisco’s managing director for Cloud and AI Infrastructure in the region.
Cisco warned that the emergence of “agentic AI” — autonomous systems capable of making decisions and executing workflows with minimal human oversight — will test organizations’ readiness even further.
The study found that 90% of Philippine organizations plan to deploy AI agents within their operations, with 35% expecting these tools to work alongside employees as early as next year.
However, many firms still operate on infrastructure unable to handle such complexity. Thirty-nine percent of local respondents said their networks cannot scale to meet AI data demands, while only 11% described their systems as flexible enough to support agentic AI.
Cisco coined the term “AI Infrastructure Debt” to describe the accumulated technical shortcomings — from deferred upgrades to underfunded architectures — that could undermine AI performance. The study warns that this debt could slow innovation, increase operational costs, and erode AI-driven returns.
The AI Readiness Index identified a small group of companies — dubbed “Pacesetters” — that consistently generate value from AI projects. These organizations comprise just 13% globally and 12% in the Philippines.
Pacesetters were found to be 1.5 times more likely to report profitability, productivity, and innovation gains from AI compared to their peers. They share three key traits: clear AI roadmaps, robust data infrastructure, and disciplined change-management programs.
Nearly all Pacesetters (99%) have a defined AI strategy, and 91% include change-management plans to guide workforce adaptation — compared to only 27% of Philippine firms.
They also invest heavily in infrastructure:
- 98% design their networks to scale with AI growth.
- 77% plan new data center capacity within a year (vs. 34% in the Philippines).
- 75% can fully secure autonomous AI systems (vs. 50% locally).
Crucially, 77% of Pacesetters have finalized their AI use cases, while just 14% of Philippine firms have done so.
“This year’s Cisco AI Readiness Index makes one thing clear: readiness leads to value,” said Zaza Soriano-Nicart, managing director of Cisco Philippines.
“AI-ready organizations are six times more likely to move pilots into production and 30% more likely to realize measurable returns. As companies move toward deploying AI agents, their success will depend on readiness, discipline, and decisive action.”
