PLDT Enterprise, the B2B arm of the country’s leading ICT and digital services provider recently inked a deal with Senti AI through its innovation arm, PLDT Innovation Laboratory (Innolab).
As the Philippines’ pioneering AI company, Senti AI—focuses on making intelligent machines to understand the dynamic and ever-evolving culture and communication methods of Filipinos. With PLDT Innolab driven by empowering local startups in the country and curating their solutions to help solve the technology needs of local enterprises, the partnership between the two companies only seemed apt.
In line with the said vision, PLDT Innolab developed key thrusts—among which are business development and ecosystem build, which seek to co-develop solutions with startups as well as cultivate a community of innovators.
“Filipino entrepreneurs are generally conservative when it comes to making investments and growing their businesses and we at PLDT Innolab have made it our mission to dispel this kind of thinking. By partnering with local startups, we want to empower our entrepreneurs to be unafraid in taking risks and developing their novel ideas,” said Head of Core Business Development for PLDT Enterprise Andy Santos.
When it was first founded in 2015, Senti AI offered a social listening dashboard, Pulse, that allowed users to monitor conversations in local languages—effectively allowing for richer and more in-depth market insights.
Given PLDT Innolab’s business development thrust, Senti AI has been able to successfully fortify the said solution and bring it to more customers—even catering to some of the country’s biggest brands and conglomerates. Today, Senti AI also offers Volant, its forms processing automation tool; and Natter, a localized Chat Assistant API.
PLDT FVP & Head of Enterprise Core Business Solutions Jojo Gendrano shared his excitement for the partnership saying, “We at PLDT Enterprise are proud to join in Senti AI’s vision of making AI accessible for businesses of all sizes. By partnering with a strong local AI pioneer, we hope to co-create even more relevant solutions to meet the evolving demands of today’s businesses. We are also driven to help such startup partners achieve greater scale and go global.”
Just last year, the Innovative Startup Act was signed into law, effectively pushing for the creation of job opportunities and advancement of innovation in the country through startups. With the government’s optimism for the dynamic industry, more investors have begun eyeing local startups. Such response couldn’t come at a better time as the Philippines is expecting 6.6% economic growth for 2020.
“We’re at a time when the landscapes of business and technology are rapidly changing. As technological advancements continue, Filipino companies constantly face bigger demands for speed and efficiency. When we talk about speed and efficiency, they are what humans are most likely to fall short in. Such a gap is where we see AI’s value in, and this is why we heavily contribute in terms of commercial and community efforts. We’re honored and excited to partner with PLDT in being at the forefront of innovation in the Philippines,” said Ralph Regalado, CEO and founder of Senti AI.