Manila, Philippines — sales forcethe world’s number one AI CRM, has announced new research results. Agent Force World Tour Manila 2026 This shows that knowledge workers’ use of AI in their personal lives, rather than top-down corporate mandates, is increasing their trust and confidence in using AI in the workplace. 68% of knowledge workers said that their personal use of AI has increased their confidence in using AI tools at work. With increasing personal usage, the time is ripe for businesses in the Philippines to drive enterprise AI adoption and value by creating an AI-savvy workforce.
As trust in AI grows, 70% of knowledge workers in the Philippines say that their personal use of AI has increased their confidence in using AI tools at work. This trust and confidence is highest among Gen Z, with 74% reporting that their personal use of AI has had a positive impact on their perceptions of AI in the workplace.
The investigation is YouGov A survey commissioned by Salesforce surveyed 1,057 knowledge workers in the Philippines to understand employee attitudes and perceptions towards AI/Agent AI.
Skills and knowledge gaps pose risks to company value
Almost all knowledge workers in the Philippines expect their jobs to change to some degree with the use of AI and AI agents in the workplace. Only 3% of knowledge workers in the Philippines expect to never use an AI agent, but more than 56% are already using one to help them perform better, be faster, or be more creative. However, despite the apparent willingness to adopt agenttic AI, a skills and knowledge gap is emerging that may prevent companies from taking full advantage of agenttic AI.
Almost half (48%) of Filipino knowledge workers want to better understand the skills they need to develop for the AI era, and the majority have limited training in agent AI.
- Only 34% of knowledge workers in the Philippines say their company receives training on how to use AI agents
- Only 31% of employees say their company is investing in new tools and forums for peer-to-peer AI agent knowledge sharing
- Only 22% encourage managers and executives to share how they use AI agents as models/examples
Companies that fail to provide their employees with access to enterprise-grade AI solutions risk increasing the use of shadow AI, or unauthorized tools that operate outside of an organization’s visibility or control. This lack of visibility creates significant security vulnerabilities, most notably the leakage of sensitive data. Skills gaps can exacerbate these risks. When employees with limited training use AI without mastering rapid engineering and fact-checking outputs, they inadvertently create inaccuracies and run into compliance issues.
“The growing trust in AI across the Philippines is being driven from the bottom up, with individual curiosity now outweighing corporate strategy,” he said. Abraham Cuevas, Salesforce Philippines Country General Manager. “However, individual usage alone will not lead to enterprise-wide effects. With the government set to inject P2.6 billion into AI projects by 2028, businesses can accelerate the national transformation from a service economy to a knowledge-driven innovation hub and increase the expected P2.8 trillion from AI. We must act now to capture PHP 0 billion in productivity gains. The Philippine workforce is ready. It is up to organizations to provide secure, enterprise-grade frameworks and skills support to transform individual experiments into tailored engines.” For the growth and innovation of Agentic Enterprise. ”
Knowledge workers in ASEAN are ready to collaborate with AI, as long as they have access to transparent and high-quality tools.
When asked how AI will impact their work in the future, 45% of knowledge workers said they expect to use AI agents to automate some tasks and augment others. 26% believe human-AI collaboration skills will be important in the future.
As human-AI collaboration becomes increasingly commonplace, knowledge workers in the Philippines are looking for clarity and high-quality tools to use AI agents with confidence. The top three factors that give knowledge workers confidence in using AI agents in the workplace are:
· High level of transparency and control – Know what actions the AI agent took and why (43%)
· Easy access to approved quality tools (46%)
・Understanding the skills workers should acquire (48%)
Other factors include clear reassurance from companies that human skills remain at the heart of the job and strong guardrails to ensure security, privacy and compliance (33%).
Abraham added: “Our research shows that Filipino workers are embracing AI, but this is just the first step. What we need now is AI fluency – the ability to confidently work with AI to drive business impact at speed and scale. The mission for organizations is clear, as edge workers already expect to use AI agents to automate and enhance their roles.Providing transparency, access to tools, and skills development gives employees the agency to not only use AI, but to redesign the way they work. Basically works for Agent Enterprise. ”
The stakes are high: AI-first consumers in the Philippines
This research is also a reminder to businesses that knowledge workers’ personal use of AI is driving consumer expectations, making AI a competitive necessity. 46% of knowledge workers now expect faster and more efficient service, and 41% expect greater accuracy and fewer errors from the companies they interact with. More than 41% expect more innovative or intelligent solutions.
Only 12% of respondents said their expectations remained the same.
Supporting the transformation of Philippine companies into agent-type companies
To help Philippine businesses realize tangible business value from agent AI while meeting the rising expectations of both workers and consumers, Salesforce held the Agentforce World Tour in Manila. The company introduced Agentforce, a complete operating system for Agentic Enterprise that unifies people, agents, apps, and data on one trusted, unified platform. Its four-tier platform (Context, Work, Agency, and Engagement) provides the essential infrastructure needed to transform raw intelligence into real work and move beyond individual agencies to enterprise agencies, where thousands of agents and humans coordinate and execute complex tasks across teams, functions, and enterprises.
The event featured inspiring keynotes, a campground with live demos, innovative products and industry-specific sessions to help organizations succeed in the age of agent AI. Customers such as AXA Philippines, Ayala Land, and PLDT Inc. shared their insights on digital transformation using Salesforce.
Key highlights of the study:
- The use of AI is progressing across generations. While Millennials are leading the way in AI usage, Gen Z and Gen X are not far behind
- Among knowledge workers surveyed, Millennials use AI in the workplace at an average rate of just 6 percentage points higher than Gen Z and Gen X.
- Gen
- Knowledge workers in the Philippines have interacted with or are using AI agents at work and expect to derive significant benefits from using them.
- 76% of knowledge workers in the Philippines have interacted with or used agent AI in their work, and a majority (75%) agree that their job is at least moderately changed by having tasks shared with an AI agent.
- 53% of knowledge workers in the Philippines expect AI to help them complete tasks faster, and 35% expect AI to improve the quality of their work.
- 45% of knowledge workers in the Philippines expect to go beyond simple automation and use AI agents to improve job performance (13%)
Top 3 ways AI agents are currently augmenting the workforce in the Philippines
- Provides quick access to information and eliminates the need for extensive research (53%)
- Helps with writing and communication, saving time and effort (49%)
- Helps brainstorm ideas and overcome creative blocks (44%)
Top 3 job skills that employees believe will be most important in the Age of Agentic Enterprise
- Creative thinking (35%)
- Data analysis and interpretation (34%)
- Problem solving (33%)
methodology
The survey was conducted online by YouGov from February to March 2026 and collected data from 1,057 Filipino respondents, categorized by generation: Gen Z (n=426, ages 17-29), Millennials (n=485, ages 30-45), Gen X (n=142, ages 46-61), and Baby Boomers (n=4, ages 62-61). 80). All respondents work full-time in “knowledge work” roles up to middle management (e.g., finance, marketing, IT, law, education, research, healthcare management, consulting).
Business size is defined as: small (1-49 employees), medium (50-199 employees), large (200-499 employees), and very large (500 or more employees).
