The Philippines is entering a new phase of digital transformation. As organisations move from AI experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment, the challenge is no longer whether to adopt artificial intelligence, but how to implement it responsibly and generate measurable business outcomes.
For Leo Capinpin, who took on the role of Country General Manager and Technology Leader of IBM Philippines earlier this year, that shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
Speaking to UpTech Media, Leo shares how his focus is on helping enterprises build trusted AI foundations while preparing for emerging technologies that could reshape how organisations operate in the years ahead.
Closing the gap between AI adoption and business value
Capinpin’s immediate focus is centred on helping clients move beyond isolated AI initiatives and achieve meaningful outcomes through enterprise-wide adoption.
“My priority is to further accelerate IBM’s growth trajectory by enabling our enterprise clients, who are at a critical juncture in their digital transformation journey, leverage the full potential of AI and hybrid cloud,” he says.
Drawing from findings in IBM’s 2025 CEO Study, Capinpin points out that while 55% of Philippine CEOs surveyed are actively adopting AI agents and preparing to scale them, only 23% have achieved the returns they expected.
“This gap presents an opportunity for us at IBM to demonstrate value through continuous collaboration and proven technical expertise across the entire AI lifecycle. We are committed to enable clients from AI experimentation to production-scale adoption.”
To address this challenge, IBM Philippines is focusing on three strategic priorities.
“We aim to do this by focusing on three areas: First, expanding our reach across key industries where AI and hybrid cloud adoption is accelerating including banking, energy and utilities, manufacturing, telecommunications, and public sector, to name a few. Second, strengthening our ecosystem partnerships to deliver more comprehensive solutions that solve our clients’ challenges across hybrid environments. And third, ensuring we bring IBM’s core values to life in every client engagement—trust and personal responsibility in all relationships, dedication to every client’s success, and innovation that matters for our clients and country.”
Helping Philippine enterprises move beyond AI experimentation
According to Capinpin, the conversation around AI in the Philippines has evolved significantly over the past few years.
“The conversation in the Philippines has fundamentally shifted in recent years from experimentation to companies now testing and deploying AI using their own data and for their own operations.”
That shift is happening even as many organisations continue to evaluate the long-term value of their AI investments.
“Executives aren’t waiting for absolute readiness,” he says, referencing IBM research showing that many CEOs are investing in emerging technologies to avoid being left behind.
IBM’s role, he explains, is to help organisations overcome the obstacles that often prevent AI initiatives from scaling successfully.
“IBM is a trusted partner helping organisations seize this opportunity by creating smarter businesses with AI and hybrid cloud and enabling them to become more efficient, agile, and innovative. Our approach is anchored in addressing bottlenecks including data, technology, and skills.”
Data, in particular, remains a foundational requirement.
“With our watsonx platform and AI governance capabilities, we help organisations ensure their data and AI is trusted, secure, and governed. Without this foundation, AI can’t deliver real business value and risks cannot be observed, measured or mitigated.”
Capinpin also highlights workforce readiness as a critical challenge. Through IBM SkillsBuild, the company continues to collaborate with educational institutions and government agencies to help learners acquire AI, cloud, and digital skills needed by industry.
Building trust, governance, and digital sovereignty
Capinpin believes government and highly regulated industries will play a central role in shaping the country’s AI future.
“The Philippines is at an exciting inflection point for AI adoption and governance, and IBM committed to collaborating with the government to promote these initiatives.”
He points to the Philippines’ National AI Strategy as an important framework for strengthening the country’s capabilities across infrastructure, workforce development, innovation, and governance.
“IBM is committed to fully supporting governments including the Philippines, who are making critical investments in national AI projects, and encourage them to continue executing ambitious plans to build AI capacity, launch national AI initiatives and support open AI innovation.”
Trust remains a recurring theme in IBM’s approach, particularly in sectors where decisions can have far-reaching societal and economic consequences.
“Public trust is essential for AI adoption, particularly in government and highly-regulated sectors. To trust a decision made by an algorithm, we need to ensure fairness, reliability, and accountability.”
Capinpin says IBM’s governance tools are designed to address those concerns directly.
“IBM watsonx AI governance capabilities are specifically designed to address concerns around transparency, bias mitigation, and regulatory compliance, making trustworthy AI a reality.”
He also identifies digital sovereignty as an increasingly important priority.
“For IBM, digital sovereignty is about enabling organisations adopt and build technology on their own terms. It encompasses who operates and controls the technology environment, how data is accessed and governed, where workloads execute, and under whose jurisdictions AI models run.”
Preparing organisations for the agentic AI era
For Capinpin, innovation does not require abandoning the principles that have defined IBM for decades.
“Balancing continuity with innovation involves building on proven strengths while remaining agile enough to capture emerging opportunities. The throughline is IBM’s mission: to be a catalyst that makes the world work better. This mission does not change, but how we execute it continually evolves.”
IBM’s foundation, he says, remains rooted in hybrid cloud, responsible AI, and industry expertise. The next phase involves helping organisations prepare for a future increasingly shaped by agentic AI.
“We’re complementing Generative AI with Agentic AI systems that act more autonomously, proactively, and adaptively. These agents can manage multiple workflows simultaneously—coordinating tasks across different business functions, making decisions based on real-time data, and learning from outcomes to continuously improve performance.”
Capinpin expects agentic AI to become a significant force within enterprises over the coming years.
“Within the next few years, enterprises would have thousands of AI agents working on their behalf. We’re helping enterprises prepare for this future today through platforms like watsonx Orchestrate.”
At the same time, he acknowledges the need for speed in a rapidly changing market.
“The market is moving quickly, and our clients need partners who can move with them, while ensuring their AI deployments are trustworthy, governed, and delivering real business value.”
Ecosystems, skills, and open innovation as growth engines
Looking ahead, Capinpin sees long-term growth being driven by three interconnected areas: ecosystem collaboration, technical expertise, and workforce development.
“AI is reshaping how businesses operate and how they evaluate, buy, and deploy technology. As a result, client expectations of technology providers and their partners are rising rapidly. Meeting these expectations requires a dynamic ecosystem that moves with speed, clarity, and a shared commitment to outcomes.”
IBM’s ecosystem strategy is designed to help partners expand their capabilities while bringing enterprise-grade AI and hybrid cloud solutions to market.
“With our partner-first strategy, IBM is driving growth through an open hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence ecosystem.”
Capinpin also points to IBM’s continued investments in open technologies and data infrastructure as critical enablers of future AI deployments.
At the same time, he argues that skills development remains one of the most important investments the company can make.
“A skilled ecosystem creates more opportunities for technology adoption and sustainable business growth. Our clients need talent who can implement, manage, and optimize AI solutions and investing in skills development expands the market for everyone, which would help accelerate the pace of digital transformation across industries.”
Through initiatives such as IBM SkillsBuild and collaborations with educational institutions, government agencies, and educators, IBM aims to help create a broader talent pipeline capable of supporting the country’s growing digital economy.
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As Philippine organisations move from AI pilots to large-scale deployment, Capinpin sees IBM’s role extending far beyond technology implementation. The company’s strategy is increasingly focused on helping enterprises build the foundations necessary for sustainable AI adoption—trusted data, responsible governance, modern infrastructure, and a skilled workforce.
By combining these elements with an expanding ecosystem of partners, IBM Philippines is positioning itself to help organisations navigate the next stage of digital transformation, where success will be measured not by experimentation, but by tangible business outcomes.
