• Globe Telecom has long been developing an AI-native telco strategy 
• It has been measuring the return on its initial AI investments
• The Philippine telco has identified fiscal benefits from incremental revenues, cost avoidance and more

Globe Telecom, the largest mobile operator by customer numbers in the Philippines, says it has been measuring the financial benefits of its AI initiatives and that it has achieved a 2.8x return on its AI investments to date.

The telco, which ended June with 67.7 million mobile and 2.4 million fixed broadband customers, is in growth mode – it generated revenues of 85.4bn Philippine pesos (PHP) ($1.36bn) and EBITDA of PHP44.9bn ($710m) in the first half of 2026, both up by 6% compared with the same period a year earlier – and has long been looking for ways to improve its top and bottom lines through the deployment of AI tools. As long ago as May 2024 it made Anton Reynaldo Bonifacio its chief AI officer, and then most recently appointed him as chief intelligence and trust officer (CITO), with responsibility for AI, data, cybersecurity and digital policy. 

It is also one of the 56 operators around the world that are being tracked and analysed for TelecomTV’s AI-Native Telco Index reports, the first of which has just been published – see New report identifies the AI-native telco frontrunners.

Globe’s AI investments have been modest to date but, according to the operator, they are paying off, as it believes it has achieved PHP1.2bn ($19.2m) in “measurable benefits from its generative AI (GenAI) and AI and machine learning (AI/ML) initiatives as of August 2026… reflecting Globe’s growing focus on measuring AI through tangible business outcomes rather than adoption alone”.

Carl Cruz, Globe president and CEO, stated: “The real measure of AI is not how many people are using it but what it actually improves. We want to see it translate into better experiences for our customers, more intelligent ways of working for our people, and tangible results for the business. That is why we are putting greater discipline around measuring the value AI creates.” 

According to the telco, which claims enterprise AI adoption of 90% as of August 2026, the benefits “span incremental revenue, cost avoidance and employee productivity, showing how AI is beginning to contribute across different parts of the business”. The largest share of measurable value has come from “AI-powered commercial and customer initiatives”, which have generated more than PHP825m ($13.2m) in incremental revenue. “These include the use of AI to make customer offers and experiences more relevant across areas such as Globe Rewards [loyalty programme], roaming, lending and postpaid services, demonstrating how AI can strengthen customer engagement while contributing to business growth,” noted the operator. 

Globe also recorded PHP368m ($5.9m) in “realised cost avoidance through initiatives spanning finance, customer engagement, marketing technology and order management”. Rather than deploying AI as a standalone technology, the company has embedded it into existing processes where it can solve specific operational challenges and improve how work gets done.

For further details on how Globe is measuring the return on its AI investments, see this announcement.  

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV