WINNING | PLDT's AI agents slash thousands of work hours

Insider Spotlight

• PLDT says its agentic AI deployments are reclaiming tens of thousands of hours of manual work annually
• AI assistant Ellie has cut standard proposal and presentation development time by 40 percent to 60 percent
• KAI reduces knowledge retrieval from as long as five days to one to three seconds
  
  
  
  

PLDT is pushing agentic artificial intelligence (AI) deeper into its operations, using AI agents to automate labor-intensive sales, knowledge retrieval and risk management processes while freeing employees for higher-value work.

The Philippine digital services provider received a Silver Award at the 2026 UiPath AI Breakthrough Awards for its enterprise transformation. The recognition highlights how PLDT is moving beyond conventional automation by deploying AI agents and intelligent workflows at scale.

50% in upsell rates

At the center of the transformation is Ellie (Enablement and Intelligence Engine) an AI-powered assistant that combines enterprise knowledge with live CRM data. It automatically generates tailored proposals and presentations, helping PLDT reclaim an estimated 18,000 to 25,000 hours of manual work annually.

Sales teams have reported a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in time spent creating standard proposals and presentations, while proposal error rates have fallen by 40 percent to 50 percent. PLDT has also observed a 20-percent to 50-percent increase in upsell rates.

Contextual responses

Ellie also monitors customer health indicators, using predictive analytics to identify churn risks such as declining product usage or delayed payments and alert relationship managers to retention and upsell opportunities.

PLDT is extending that approach through KAI, its knowledge-retrieval agent, and ERICA, its enterprise risk intelligence agent. KAI turns research that previously took up to five days into contextual responses delivered in one to three seconds, saving an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 hours annually. ERICA has reduced manual risk-assessment effort by 97 percent to 99 percent.

‘Technology is at the heart of PLDT’ 

"We are thrilled to receive the Silver Award at the 2026 UiPath AI Breakthrough Awards," PLDT and Smart first vice president and head of IT and transformation office Gilbert Gaw said in a press statement.

 "Technology is at the heart of how PLDT serves our customers and supports the country's growing digital needs. This recognition is a proud moment for PLDT and a testament to the passion our teams have channeled into building Ellie, KAI, and ERICA. It fuels our drive to keep pushing the boundaries of what agentic AI can achieve for our business and our customers," he added.

Orchestrating complex workflows

PLDT's deployments show how agentic AI can shift enterprise automation from executing repetitive tasks toward orchestrating complex workflows—with measurable gains in speed, capacity and customer-facing productivity. —Vanessa Hidalgo | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma