The Philippines ranked fifth among 53 countries in artificial intelligence use, with 94.4% of Filipino Internet users aged 16 and above using an AI tool in the past month, according to the Digital 2027: Philippines report.
Released on Nov. 5 by We Are Social and Meltwater, the report placed Philippine AI usage above the worldwide figure of 85.2%.
ChatGPT was used by 54.6% of Filipino Internet users, the highest rate among Asia-Pacific markets and above the global figure of 34.7%.
“ChatGPT” also ranked as the third most-searched term on Google in the Philippines, while “AI” placed eighth and “Gemini” ranked 13th.
Finding information was the most common reason for using AI, cited by 71.7% of active Filipino AI users. Learning or improving skills followed at 52.3%, while 42.2% used the tools to save time or increase efficiency.
Despite widespread use, only 5.5% of Filipino Internet users paid for an AI tool, below the worldwide figure of 9.5%.
The report also found that 30.4% of Filipino Internet users were comfortable with AI, matching the global figure. About one in three believed the technology enhanced their daily life.
Concerns about online information remained widespread. Among Filipino online news consumers, 65.8% expressed concern about distinguishing real from fake content on the Internet.
AI tools also trailed other sources for researching businesses and discovering brands. Only 23.8% of Filipino Internet users identified AI tools as a main source for researching businesses, while 11.3% discovered new brands through them.
Consumer reviews, social networks, and search engines remained the leading sources for business research, cited by 49%, 48.6%, and 42.3%, respectively.
“AI’s prevalence means that it’s been highly embedded in the lives of locals and local businesses – who need to consider what these platforms say and how they shape their company reputations,” said Mimrah Mahmood, Asia Pacific vice president of enterprise sales at Meltwater.
“Beyond business, the shift to AI is happening throughout the country. Filipinos use it the way they use search or social media, to learn something new and to get immediate answers that are specifically tailor-fit for the questions they’re asking. That makes the Philippines an early indicator of where digital behavior in Asia-Pacific is heading, and a market the rest of the region will be watching.”
The report also recorded continued growth in social media use. TikTok’s adult audience in the Philippines increased by 22.4 million over the past year, the largest gain among platforms covered by the report.
Monthly TikTok use reached 84.8% of Filipino Internet users, compared with 36.1% worldwide. Filipinos used an average of 8.4 social platforms each month, second only to users in the UAE.
YouTube overtook Facebook as the largest source of website referrals from social platforms in the Philippines, accounting for 49.9% of that traffic, compared with Facebook’s 46.4%.
Facebook’s Philippine share had stood at 90.3% a year earlier. Globally, the platform still accounted for 73.2% of website referrals from social media.
