Philippine chief executives are among the world’s most confident adopters of enterprise technology, with many rapidly reshaping leadership structures and operations to keep pace with accelerating business disruption, according to a new study by IBM.

The IBM Institute for Business Value study found that 80 percent of Philippine CEOs surveyed are comfortable using AI-generated insights to make major strategic decisions, surpassing the 64 percent global average. Meanwhile, 73 percent of Philippine executives believe operational and tactical decisions can be made faster and more effectively by AI than by people, compared to 57 percent globally.

“APAC CEOs are setting the global pace for AI adoption, moving decisively beyond experimentation toward AI-driven leadership,” said Juhi McClelland, managing director of IBM Consulting Asia Pacific.

“What stands out is not only their confidence in the technology, but how deliberately they are embedding AI at the core of decision-making and operations,” she added.

The study also showed that 97 percent of Philippine CEOs surveyed are prioritizing rapid operational pivots over maintaining long-term approaches, while 93 percent said competitive pressures are moving faster than their organizations can fully adapt.

According to IBM Philippines country general manager Leo Capinpin, companies must move beyond treating emerging technologies as standalone projects.

“The companies that will come out ahead are those that move beyond treating AI as a project, and start running their business with AI at the core,” Capinpin said.

The report also found that Philippine organizations expect major workforce shifts in the coming years, with executives forecasting widespread reskilling and upskilling as leadership, talent and technology functions increasingly converge.