Globe Says Its AI Projects Returned P1.2 Billion, 2.8 Times What It Spent
Globe Telecom says its AI and machine learning work delivered P1.2 billion in measurable value as of August, about 2.8 times its AI investment, mostly from better-targeted offers. Here is how the number breaks down and what it does not tell us.
Plenty of companies say they use AI. Fewer put a peso figure on what it earns them. Globe Telecom has done that, saying its generative AI and AI and machine learning initiatives produced P1.2 billion in measurable benefits as of August 2026, which it says equals a 2.8x return on its AI investments. The figures come from a Globe newsroom post dated September 25 and were picked up again this weekend by The Manila Times and the Daily Tribune.
"The real measure of AI is not how many people are using it, but what it actually improves," Globe President and CEO Carl Cruz said in the statement.
Where the P1.2 billion came from
| Category | Value | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Extra revenue | Over P825 million | Offers in Rewards, roaming, lending, postpaid |
| Cost avoidance | P368 million | Finance, marketing tech, order management |
| Productivity | P28 million | Over 52,000 work hours saved |
The pattern is familiar for a telco. Most of the value sits in deciding which customer gets which offer, a classic machine learning job, rather than in chatbots. Globe says it embedded AI into existing processes "where it can solve specific operational challenges," instead of deploying it as a standalone tool.
Globe also says enterprise AI adoption inside the company reached 90% as of August, and that more than 450 employees now build AI solutions themselves, beyond its dedicated technology teams.
What the number does not say
The figures are Globe's own. The company describes them as coming from its "initial enterprise measurement," and it has not published the method, the size of the AI investment behind the 2.8x figure, or whether an outside party reviewed it. Extra revenue in particular depends on what a company assumes would have happened without the AI, so the split between categories matters more than the headline total.
Still, it is a useful benchmark at a time when most businesses struggle to measure AI at all. Globe says its next phase will focus on making "every AI investment increasingly measurable and accountable," which is the right question for any company past the pilot stage.
Takeaways for other Philippine businesses
- Start where the data already is. Globe's biggest wins came from customer offers and back-office processes it already ran, not from new products.
- Count hours and pesos separately. Globe reports 52,000 hours saved but values them at only P28 million, a reminder that time saved is not the same as cash saved.
- Decide how you will measure before you scale. A clear baseline is what makes a claim like 2.8x believable.
