DTI's AI Support Hub in Makati: What to Confirm

On 11 August, the DTI AI and Scale-Up Center opened at the DTI Filinvest Building in Makati. It is a joint facility between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the telecommunications provider Converge ICT Solutions, built as a place where small and medium enterprises can try AI directly while they consider adopting it.

For Japanese companies operating in the Philippines, this is not a distant story. A point of entry into AI adoption for local SMEs has now been created on the government side. Your suppliers and your competitors may start using this facility. This article reads the news as material for your own decisions.

Part 1: Read → Draw the Implications for Your Company

Here is what opened.

First, the facts.

The facility is called the DTI AI and Scale-Up Center, located at the DTI Filinvest Building in Makati City. It puts into practice a memorandum of understanding signed by DTI and Converge ICT Solutions in November 2025, and Converge SME Solutions, the company's arm for small and medium enterprises, is involved.

What is offered includes space for live AI demonstrations, dedicated booths called Accelerator Pods, opportunities to pitch to investors and others, training facilities, hands-on workshops led by specialists, technical consultations, and collaborative meeting areas. Support for building customised AI solutions is also listed.

DTI Secretary Cristina A. Roque described the facility as providing a realistic, accessible entry point for Filipino businesses to explore and adopt modern technology such as AI. Converge chief executive Dennis Anthony Uy also set out his position that the aim is to help local businesses take realistic steps forward.

The word both of them share is "realistic." This is not framed as a large transformation. It is framed as somewhere to touch the technology first.

Two implications follow.

The first is that AI adoption among Philippine SMEs is moving from individual effort to the subject of policy. The facility rests on the three laws discussed below, so it is not a one-off event.

The second is that the emphasis is on making the first step easier to take. Read the other way round, the premise is that many companies are still stuck before that step. That reading may match what you see on the ground.

Related: The Model Vendors Just Built Implementation Arms: What Local Subsidiaries Should Decide Now explains this in detail.

Part 2: Key Terms for Executives

Here are the terms needed to understand this news.

Accelerator Pods Dedicated working spaces where a company can concentrate on development and testing. Close to a booth, but with the added sense of receiving support and producing something concrete within a short period.

Converge SME Solutions The small and medium enterprise arm of the telecommunications provider Converge ICT Solutions. A company that sells connectivity becoming involved in the digitalisation of SMEs is a natural extension for a telecommunications business.

Tatak Pinoy Act (RA 11981) A law aimed at raising the quality and competitiveness of Philippine products and services. "Tatak Pinoy" means "made in the Philippines," and the law frames a policy of lifting domestic industry.

Philippine Innovation Act (RA 11293) A law that positions innovation as a pillar of national development strategy. It includes micro, small and medium enterprises among the intended beneficiaries, which is what connects it to this facility.

Innovative Startup Act (RA 11337) A law that reduces burdens on startups and provides support.

The fact that three laws are cited together matters. This facility sits at the intersection of three policies: SME support, industrial competitiveness, and startup development. In terms of budget and continuity, that structure tends to be more stable than a single initiative.

Related: OpenAI Moves Into Hands-On Deployment: An AI Adoption Strategy for Japanese Companies in the Philippines explains this in detail.

Part 3: Applying This to Your Company

Three moves that are worth making either way.

So how should a Japanese company in the Philippines treat this?

There is something to confirm first. Reports describe the intended users as "companies, startups and local enterprises" and "businesses of every size," but whether foreign-owned or Japanese companies can use it cannot be confirmed from the information made public. Before you build a plan on the assumption that you can, contact DTI directly and confirm. If you proceed on a guess here, internal expectations will run ahead of the facts.

That said, there are useful moves whether or not you turn out to be eligible.

First, take stock of your own operations beforehand. Thinking about it after watching a demonstration is the wrong order. If you have written down how many hours each task takes and where people get stuck on a decision, you can judge on the spot how the technology you see applies to your own work.

Second, check the state of the data you already hold. Whether something can be handed to AI is usually decided by how organised the data is, not by the technology. Are invoices PDFs or paper? Does customer information exist only in one person's spreadsheet? You can check this today without going anywhere.

Third, watch what your business partners do. If local suppliers and subcontractors change their operations through this kind of support, the format of your dealings with them will change too. When invoicing or delivery formats change, it is worth knowing early whether your side can keep up.

I have worked in IT and web since the 1990s, and the companies that do well when a new tool appears are not the ones that start from the tool. The companies that had already put their own problems into words can map the tool onto them the moment it arrives, and they move faster. The order is always the same.

Related: How AI Helps Philippine Small Businesses Stay Competitive in 2026 explains this in detail.

Part 4: Common Failure Patterns (NG List)

These are the failures that actually occur in response to news of this kind.

1: Assuming the facility will produce the answer A support facility is an entry point. It will not define your problem for you. Arrive without a question to bring, and you will watch a demonstration, be impressed, and go home.

2: Starting from the tool instead of the work Begin with "which AI should we adopt" and you will spend time on selection, then discover there was no task inside the company for the tool to land on. Taking stock of the work comes first.

3: Sharing it internally before confirming eligibility In this case, whether Japanese companies can use the facility has not been confirmed. Circulate "DTI has started AI support, so we can use it" internally and you will be issuing a correction later. Verify against a primary source before you share.

4: Leaving the head office approval process out of the calculation You may find a good initiative locally, only for approval in Japan to take months. Local support facilities move quickly, so if you do not allow for that gap, the counterpart you were dealing with will have changed roles by the time the discussion advances.

5: Trying to do everything at once When a workshop opens up several possibilities, it is tempting to start on all of them. In a local subsidiary with limited staff, it is more reliable to choose one task and carry it through to completion.

Practical Tips (3 Tips)

Tip 1: Put your question on one page before you move Write down three tasks that cause difficulty in your company, with how much time each consumes. Whether you have that page or not changes what you can extract from outside support.

Tip 2: Confirm the conditions of use directly with DTI Reporting conveys that the facility exists and what it is for. It does not cover the detail of foreign-ownership rules or eligibility. Asking is the shortest route to knowing whether you qualify.

Tip 3: Put local staff at the centre If only Japanese expatriate managers drive it, the initiative disappears with the next transfer. If local staff bring it in as a matter of their own work, it stays. Making it workable in English and Tagalog is itself a condition for it staying.

Bonus: How to Make Use of PH AI Works

There is a stage, while you are sorting out which of your operations could be handed to AI, where an outside view helps. PH AI Works offers a 30-minute free consultation for Japanese companies operating in the Philippines.

We can work through it with you against your actual situation: taking stock of the work, the order in which to organise your data, how to assemble automation using tools such as n8n, and how to prepare an explanation for your head office in Japan. A consultation before you have decided to adopt anything is perfectly fine. Please feel free to get in touch. The initial consultation is free.

References

• DTI opens AI Scale-Up Center for Filipino businesses — Daily Guardian
• DTI flagship AI and Scale-Up Center launched — Daily Tribune, 11 August 2026
• DTI, telecoms firm open AI center for business startups — The Manila Times, 12 August 2026