ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), a data center colocation service provider headquartered in Singapore, said Philippine companies are moving quickly to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), but weak infrastructure and talent shortages are slowing large-scale deployment.
The STT GDC report, titled “Mind the Gap: Bridging the AI Infrastructure Readiness Divide,” found that 79% of Philippine organizations are already in the “Builder” stage, where companies actively deploy early AI tools into operations. However, only 2% have reached the more advanced “Integrator” stage, and none qualified as AI “Leaders.”
The findings point to a widening gap between AI ambitions and the country’s ability to support more demanding workloads.
“Compute, storage, and connectivity constraints, combined with a shortage of specialized operational expertise, are making it difficult to move from pilots to reliable, scaled deployment,” said Carlo Malana, president and CEO, STT GDC Philippines. “Addressing these challenges together is essential if organizations are to fully realize the value of AI.”
The study found that 71% of respondents identified insufficient compute power, storage, or network bandwidth as the biggest obstacle to advancing AI projects. The same percentage also said network latency and bandwidth bottlenecks are already affecting AI performance.
The issue comes as Philippine enterprises increase investments in AI-driven services, automation, customer support, and analytics. However, many organizations still rely on legacy infrastructure that was not designed for high-performance AI workloads.
Talent shortages are also creating pressure. Around 76% of organizations reported critical AI skills gaps, while 53% admitted they lack in-house expertise to manage AI infrastructure and operations.
Beyond technical limitations, the report also highlighted organizational resistance. About 94% of respondents described their workplace culture as skeptical, cautious, or ambivalent toward AI adoption.
“The data shows a clear pattern. Philippine organizations are investing and experimenting with AI, but many are reaching an infrastructure and capability ceiling,” Malana said.
The study also warned of a future readiness gap. Nearly half of respondents expect AI workloads to grow by more than 50% within the next one to three years, yet only 3% believe they are ready to support large-scale AI demand.
Despite growing interest, 86% of organizations said AI accounts for 5% or less of their total IT budgets, suggesting that spending levels may not match future infrastructure requirements.
Industry analysts have pointed to the Philippines’ growing data center market as a critical part of the country’s digital economy growth, especially as hyperscalers, cloud providers, and enterprise AI projects increase demand for power, connectivity, and low-latency infrastructure.