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(L-R) AWS Head of AI Acceleration for Banking, FSI and Digital Naveen Asrani, Ikigai Philippines CMO Abigail Ho-Torres, PLDT VP and Head of Customer Care Operations Chiqui Abad-Arevalo, PLDT COO Butch Jimenez, MicroSourcing Group CEO and CXAP President Haidee Enriquez, and Smart FVP and Head of Customer Care Brenda Dichoso.
Have you ever contacted customer service hoping to speak with a real person, only to find yourself interacting with a chatbot?
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more common in customer service, PLDT and Smart Communications believe technology should help employees address customer concerns rather than replace the human interaction that customers still need.
The telecommunications companies are emphasizing the importance of human judgment, empathy, and trust as more businesses turn to AI to automate routine tasks and improve customer support.
“The future is not about choosing between AI and people. It's about using AI to help our people do what they do best. Technology can help us move faster, work smarter, and serve customers better, but trust, empathy, and human judgment remain irreplaceable. That's why our approach at PLDT and Smart is to put AI in the hands of our people, not in place of them,” said Butch Jimenez, Chief Operating Officer of PLDT.
The discussion comes as businesses increasingly use AI to handle repetitive tasks, raising questions about how the technology will change jobs and customer interactions.
During “The Human Edge in the Age of AI,” a special edition of the PEG-Usapan Natin learning series held as part of PLDT and Smart's Customer Experience Month celebration, industry leaders discussed why human skills remain important even as technology advances.
For Abigail Ho-Torres, Chief Marketing Officer of Ikigai Philippines and customer experience advocate, businesses should ensure that customers still have the choice to speak with a person when seeking assistance.
“Technology has a huge space to help us do our jobs better, to help keep our customers happier, or make them happier with our service. But, at the same time, we still have to maintain that human experience, where customers continue to have the option to speak with a live person and not a bot,” she said.
Beyond having someone available to answer questions, customer service also involves understanding problems and finding appropriate solutions.
Lloyd Manaloto, Smart Officer-in-Charge, said companies should look beyond how quickly AI processes information and focus on whether customers actually receive the assistance they need.
“AI helps us process information faster, but customers don't measure us by how fast our systems work. They measure us by how well we solve their problems. The opportunity is to use AI to understand customers better so we can deliver experiences that are more relevant, more responsive, and ultimately more valuable. At the end of the day, AI is a tool.”
The growing use of AI is also changing the skills employees need in the workplace.
Haidee Enriquez, CEO of MicroSourcing Group and President of the Customer Experience Association of the Philippines (CXAP), said automation is shifting employees toward responsibilities that require more complex thinking and human interaction.
“AI isn't making people irrelevant. It's changing where they create the most value. As technology takes on more routine tasks, people will increasingly focus on solving complex problems, managing sensitive customer interactions, building relationships, and making decisions that require human judgment.”
Enriquez also highlighted the importance of developing T-shaped professionals, or employees who combine expertise in their respective fields with broader skills in technology, analytics, problem-solving, and collaboration.
From a technology perspective, Naveen Asrani, Head of AI Acceleration for Banking, FSI and Digital at AWS, emphasized that AI should strengthen employees' capabilities rather than remove them from customer service workflows.
"The person at the frontline has huge insights, not just about what the customer said. It's also about what the customer feels," he said.
Asrani also pointed to trust as an important measure of whether AI systems can deliver consistent value to businesses and their customers.
PLDT and Smart said AI is already being integrated into their customer-facing operations, network management, and internal workflows.
The companies have deployed AI-enabled customer service capabilities and self-optimizing network technologies.
They are also expanding the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot to help employees automate repetitive tasks, analyze information faster, and improve productivity.
Alongside these technologies, PLDT and Smart have introduced AI and innovation upskilling programs to help employees develop practical skills for an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.
The Group is also expanding access to AI through AI.Smart, a browser-based platform powered by Avtica that brings together AWS Nova, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Thinking Machines in a single interface for Smart and TNT subscribers.
For PLDT and Smart, these initiatives reflect an approach that combines technological efficiency with the skills employees bring to their work.
“In an age where technology is becoming increasingly intelligent, our responsibility is to become even more human. AI can help us scale efficiency, but it is our people who build relationships, earn trust, and create meaningful experiences for our customers,” added Jimenez.
