Landbank and the DICT are building AI helpers for small businesses, in Filipino
The two signed a memorandum on July 20 to build a phone-based set of AI assistants that can draft a business plan, explain a contract, and point an owner to financing. It is still a pilot, not an app you can download yet.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology and Land Bank of the Philippines signed an agreement on July 20 to build AI tools for small businesses. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda signed for the department. The plan is to take the tools the DICT has been building and wire them into the way Landbank actually lends money to small business owners.
The thing being built is called the MSME AI Tech Stack. It is meant to run on a phone, and it is a set of assistants for the boring parts of running a business: writing a business plan a bank will take seriously, keeping up with government paperwork, setting a price that still leaves a profit, making sense of a contract, writing marketing posts, and finding out which loans and government programs you qualify for. It is meant to work in Filipino and English, and in other major Philippine languages.
Why it matters
Most AI tools assume you already speak business English and already know what a bankable business plan looks like. That is the wall a lot of small owners hit long before they ever reach a loan officer. A tool that answers in Filipino and walks you through the paperwork is aimed at a different person: the one who has a working business and no finance background.
There is a bigger frame around it too. The partnership sits under an ASEAN priority on AI-powered growth for small businesses, which the Philippines is pushing this year as chair of the regional bloc. So this is partly the country showing its neighbors a working example.
Artificial intelligence must create real opportunities for our people, especially our MSMEs that serve as the backbone of the economy.
The catch to watch
What was signed is a memorandum of understanding, which is an agreement to work together, not a finished product. The two sides still have to run pilots and collect feedback before anything is refined into something the public uses. No launch date was given, no cost, and no number for how many businesses it is meant to reach. Worth watching, but nobody can download it today.