The Philippine AI Startups Quietly Turning a Profit
While the region chases foundation-model headlines, a handful of Manila-based AI companies are making money on unglamorous enterprise problems.
Maria Santos
The Philippine AI Startups Quietly Turning a Profit
The AI conversation in Southeast Asia tends to fixate on who might build the next foundation model. It's the wrong question for the Philippines — and a small cohort of local founders has figured that out early.
Instead of competing on frontier models, they're wrapping existing ones around unglamorous, high-friction enterprise workflows: claims processing, logistics routing, call-center quality review. The margins are unglamorous too. They're also real.
Reader Discussion
J. Bautista
This is the kind of reporting I wish more Philippine outlets did.
Maria Santos
Former Bloomberg correspondent covering capital markets, central banking, and Philippine conglomerates across Southeast Asia.
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