Smart Communications Inc. (Smart), the wireless arm of PLDT Inc. (PLDT), is strengthening its artificial intelligence (AI) and data strategy through a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The partnership aims to enhance Smart’s data platform and enable machine learning (ML) for personalized services.
Smart plans to shift its large data assets to a cloud-based system using AWS and Databricks. This move is expected to speed up service rollouts and improve operations.
“Smart’s approach to AI is one driven by relentless innovation,” said Anastacio Martirez, COO of Smart. “This is why we’ve entered this long-term partnership with AWS to build the AI-driven telco of the future.”
As part of this effort, Smart is developing a “Center for Acceleration” of AI, which will bring together experts in the field. The collaboration with AWS is seen as a key step toward this goal.
“AI’s true power lies in its ability to drive business outcomes, and Smart presents a tremendous opportunity — not just for us to provide our services, but also to collaborate on how AI can drive real impact in one of the most tech-savvy markets in Southeast Asia,” said Geeta Chaudhary, managing director, AWS Professional Services, Asia Pacific and Japan.
The project is supported by AWS partners, including Databricks, which focuses on unlocking the potential of data for businesses.
“Data is the fuel that powers AI and many companies are sitting on treasure troves of data,” said Cecily Ng, vice president and general manager of Asean and Greater China, Databricks. “Our goal is to help our customers unlock data intelligence — AI tailored to the organization’s unique data to solve domain-specific business challenges.”
Smart and PLDT have already rolled out AI-driven solutions for personalized promotions, customer engagement, and data privacy management. The company sees AI as a tool to improve customer service and efficiency.