Philippines’ DICT to integrate AI agents in the government’s digital platforms

Filipino citizens may soon be able to simply speak or text in their local languages to access government services like registering a business, checking health centre schedules and applying for disaster relief assistance. 

This is what the country’s Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) envisions, as it plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) agents across its eGovernment digital platforms, including its mobile superapp and digital ID. 

DICT and Google Cloud announced today that they are deepening their existing partnership to weave Google’s enterprise AI solutions into public service delivery. 

DICT’s Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda shared in an official statement that transformation goes beyond simply adopting new AI tools, but drives systemic efficiency across public agencies and provides easier access to government’s digital services. 

“AI-driven systems, proactive cyber defence, and network infrastructure operate in tandem to provide every citizen with access to public services and high-speed connectivity within a secure online environment,” he added. 

Agentic AI access for Filipino public officers 

Filipino public officers could access Gemini Enterprise and Google Workspace through the government’s e-procurement system, eMarketplace.  

Launched in the first quarter of 2026, eMarketplace was also built on Google Cloud’s infrastructure and is owned by the Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). 

To help officers respond more quickly to citizens' needs, DICT plans to roll out the Gemini Enterprise app, which is the user interface and “front door” of Gemini Enterprise, to more than 50,000 public officers.  

This would allow them to build and deploy AI agents within a single, fully governed environment. 

With the app, a city building official, for example, could simply ask the app’s chat interface to “find all pending building permit applications for Barangay Central submitted in the past month,” and the system would instantly retrieve and synthesise the information across different data sources. 

DICT would be tracking metrics like the frequency of use, productivity gains, cost savings, and user satisfaction, expecting to scale the use of these tools to more than 200,000 public officers over the next 18 months. 

The scaling process also depends on interoperability, as the tools come with built-in connectors to link the Gemini Enterprise app's outputs to both Google Workspace and third-party apps like Microsoft 365. 

Fighting AI-driven threats with a cross-agency cyber defence alliance 

Recognising AI’s double-edged sword to strengthen public service delivery while also fuelling new threats, the DICT’s Cybersecurity Bureau would establish a cross-agency cyber defence alliance that is supported by Google Cloud.  

The alliance brings together security teams from 56 public agencies to leverage Google Cloud’s Cybershield solution, which is a centralised platform to detect, prevent and respond to large-scale, AI-powered threats. 

DICT expects to onboard a total of 90 agencies by the end of this month. 

According to the official statement, the alliance is meant to consolidate the monitoring of security events across the whole-of-government (WOG), enabling a more coordinated and streamlined response to cyber threats.  

This initiative would form part of the national defence architecture securing digital operations for the ASEAN Summits hosted by the Philippines from April to November 2026. 

Physical connectivity backbone to support more advanced AI 

Underpinning the agentic AI access for public officers and WOG cyber monitoring is the physical connectivity backbone to carry the extra capacity. 

AI-powered services demand a continuous, high-bandwidth data flow that the existing digital infrastructure was not built for. 

Currently, Google, as the funder, and the Pacific Connect initiative stakeholders are extending the Taiwan-Philippines-US (TPU) subsea cable to handle this capacity more affordably. 

This would enable DICT to channel the network resources to expand free Wi-Fi for more public schools, hospitals, community centres and more, as well as to improve the reliability and scale of its e-government services. 

At the same time, both residents and local organisations would be able to tap into more advanced global AI services and scale their own AI applications to international markets. 

The Philippines government is supporting to connect these cable systems with the local commercial terrestrial networks and the DICT-managed Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI) corridor. 

You can read other articles covering DICT here in our digital government directory.