According to a survey commissioned by Salesforce Philippines Inc., the growing trust in artificial intelligence (AI) among Filipino workers is due more to personal use than corporate adoption.
The YouGov survey of 1,057 knowledge workers in sectors such as finance and IT found that 70% of respondents said their personal use of AI had increased their confidence in using technology at work, and 68% said it had increased their trust in AI tools.
“What’s really driving trust in AI is not the corporate use; it’s actually the personal use,” said Abraham Cuevas, Country General Manager, Salesforce Philippines.
The findings point to a bottom-up adoption trend where employees bring their familiarity with everyday use of AI, such as asking questions and generating content, into the workplace. Trust levels were highest among younger workers, especially Gen Z, but adoption has declined across generations.
Despite this openness, the study highlighted gaps that can slow enterprise adoption. Almost half (48%) of respondents said they needed a clearer understanding of the skills needed to use AI effectively, but only 34% said they had received training on AI tools and 31% said their companies had invested in knowledge-sharing platforms.
“48% of Filipino workers really need a clear understanding of the skills they need to develop to use AI effectively,” Cuevas said, noting that limited training can prevent organizations from fully leveraging so-called “agent AI.”
The study also showed that AI is already widely used in the workplace. Approximately 76% of respondents said they have interacted with or are using an AI agent, and 45% expect to use AI agents to both automate tasks and enhance operations. Common use cases include quick access to information (53%), writing assistance (49%), and brainstorming ideas (44%).
However, the transition from personal to corporate use raises governance and security concerns. Cuevas said that as AI expands across operations, organizations need to address issues of trust.
“How can you trust it to be used at an enterprise scale?” He pointed to the need for safeguards and governance frameworks.
The survey found that workers expect their employers to take a more active role in enabling AI adoption. About 46% want access to approved, high-quality tools, and 43% want more transparency about how AI systems work. An additional 33% emphasized the need for strong security, privacy, and compliance guardrails.
Cuevas said companies need to invest in “AI fluency,” or the ability of employees to work effectively with AI systems.
“Our research shows that Filipino workers are actively embracing AI, but this is only the first step,” he said. “What we need now is AI fluency – the ability to confidently collaborate with AI to drive business impact at speed and scale.”
He added that organizations need to transform individual experimentation into systematic implementation.
“Trust in AI is growing across the Philippines, and it’s growing from the bottom up, with individual curiosity now outweighing corporate strategy,” Cuevas said. “However, individual use alone does not lead to enterprise-wide impacts.”
