As artificial intelligence (AI) takes on more routine tasks in customer service and business operations, PLDT and Smart Communications are emphasizing the need to retain human judgment, empathy, and personal interaction.
PLDT chief operating officer Butch Jimenez said AI should support employees rather than replace them, allowing workers to focus on tasks that require human decision-making and customer engagement.
“The future is not about choosing between AI and people. It’s about using AI to help our people do what they do best. Technology can help us move faster, work smarter, and serve customers better, but trust, empathy, and human judgment remain irreplaceable. That’s why our approach at PLDT and Smart is to put AI in the hands of our people, not in place of them,” Jimenez said.
The companies discussed the role of human skills in AI-driven workplaces during “The Human Edge in the Age of AI,” a special edition of the PEG-Usapan Natin learning series held as part of their Customer Experience Month celebration.
Haidee Enriquez, CEO of MicroSourcing Group and president of the Customer Experience Association of the Philippines (CXAP), said AI is changing the skills required of workers rather than making them irrelevant.
“AI isn’t making people irrelevant. It’s changing where they create the most value. As technology takes on more routine tasks, people will increasingly focus on solving complex problems, managing sensitive customer interactions, building relationships, and making decisions that require human judgment,” Enriquez said.
She also pointed to the need for T-shaped professionals who combine expertise in a particular field with broader knowledge of technology, analytics, problem-solving, and collaboration.
“The workforce of the future needs to be T-shaped. Having deep expertise in one area will remain important, but people also need the ability to work across disciplines, adapt to new technologies, and understand how AI can improve outcomes. Ultimately, your value will increasingly come from what you know, how you think, and how effectively you use technology.”
Smart officer-in-charge Lloyd Manaloto said companies should assess AI based on its ability to improve customer service, rather than simply how much work it can automate.
“AI helps us process information faster, but customers don’t measure us by how fast our systems work. They measure us by how well we solve their problems. The opportunity is to use AI to understand customers better so we can deliver experiences that are more relevant, more responsive, and ultimately more valuable. At the end of the day, AI is a tool,” Manaloto said.
Abigail Ho-Torres, chief marketing officer of Ikigai Philippines and a customer experience advocate, likewise stressed that customers should retain the option of speaking with human representatives.
“Technology has a huge space to help us do our jobs better, to help keep our customers happier, or make them happier with our service. But, at the same time, we still have to maintain that human experience, where customers continue to have the option to speak with a live person and not a bot,” she said.
Naveen Asrani, AWS head of AI Acceleration for Banking, FSI and Digital, said AI can help organizations anticipate customer needs and reduce friction in customer interactions, but employees remain important in understanding customer concerns.
“The person at the frontline has huge insights, not just about what the customer said. It’s also about what the customer feels,” Asrani said.
He said human-centered AI should incorporate employee input, keep people involved in decision-making, and improve based on actual customer interactions. He also identified trust as a key measure of whether an AI system delivers value to an organization.
PLDT and Smart said they are integrating AI into customer service, network management, and internal operations. Their initiatives include AI-enabled customer service systems, self-optimizing network technologies, and Microsoft 365 Copilot to automate routine work and assist employees with analysis and productivity tasks.
The companies have also introduced AI and innovation training programs to help employees develop skills for an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.
Another initiative is AI.Smart, a browser-based platform for Smart and TNT subscribers that provides access to multiple AI models and tools through a single interface. Powered by Avtica, the platform includes AWS Nova, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Thinking Machines.
Jimenez said the companies’ AI strategy will continue to focus on using technology to improve efficiency while preserving human interaction.
“In an age where technology is becoming increasingly intelligent, our responsibility is to become even more human. AI can help us scale efficiency, but it is our people who build relationships, earn trust, and create meaningful experiences for our customers,” he said.
