A study by public relations firm PRecious Communications found that BDO was mentioned first in 50.6 percent of 180 Philippine banking answers tested across 11 AI services, including ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, against BPI's 16.1 percent.
But BPI had the wider reach, appearing in 82.8 percent of answers compared with BDO's 76.1 percent, revealing a split in how the two banking giants show up when people turn to AI for information.
Different strengths emerge
The contrast was especially sharp in questions about banking services for businesses, where BPI appeared in nearly 96 percent of answers while BDO was named first in 75 percent.
BDO also secured the most first mentions in questions about personal banking, trust and banks' public roles, while BPI appeared most frequently in three of the four categories.
The findings highlight a new challenge for banks as AI becomes another way for potential customers to compare accounts, loans and other financial services.
However, the study did not determine whether being mentioned first or appearing more frequently makes customers more likely to choose a particular bank.
PRecious also cautioned that the results do not measure bank quality or customer preference, while its broader Southeast Asian research found that the names appearing first could change depending on the AI service and language used.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
