$1-M AI push targets higher-value outsourcing jobs

Local technology firm Amihan Global Strategies is investing $1 million to develop a pool of up to 2,000 Filipino artificial intelligence (AI) engineers to help the country's outsourcing industry shift toward higher-value services as AI reshapes traditional jobs.

At a media briefing on Thursday, Amihan Chairman Winston Damarillo said the investment would support the newly launched Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Academy, which trains specialists to integrate advanced AI technologies into business operations.

“Through our community efforts and partnerships with universities, we expect to build a pool of about 1,000 to 2,000 FDEs for the Philippines,” Damarillo said.

The company currently has about 50 trained and certified engineers, including 22 prompt engineers, and aims to increase its capacity to 100 by year-end.

Damarillo said the initiative would help position the Philippines as a global supplier of AI talent, with the United States serving as its primary market.

“The first mission is to make sure the world knows there's a healthy and abundant supply of FDEs in the Philippines,” he said.

The academy, supported by Anthropic, Amazon Web Services, SpaceX Super Intelligence and Nous Research's Hermes Agent, aims to help Philippine enterprises move beyond AI experimentation into full-scale deployment.

Amihan will also work with universities, including Mapúa and National University, to expand its training network.

The company has likewise signed an agreement with the Department of Science and Technology's Advanced Science and Technology Institute to train government scientists and engineers.

The initiative is part of Amihan's newly established Agentic Enterprise Center of Excellence in Makati, which seeks to strengthen the country's competitiveness in the growing global AI services market.