Donald Lim on CNN Philippines’ Final Word: Business leaders should face digitalization head on

Are Filipino companies coping with the digitalization trend in business worldwide? The Philippine Blockchain Week lead convenor and President of the Blockchain Council Philippines, Donald Lim, was at CNN Philippine’s “The Final Word” to discuss the advancement of the Southeast Asian country in this digital world.

As the world aims to recover from the aftermath of the pandemic, various trends, especially in business, are gaining popularity—blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) are among these trends. Filipino companies may be slow to adapt to these changes, but Lim believes that consumers needs would drive the adoption. He shared how the Philippines has earned the title of the “text capital of the world.” Now, about 70 to 80% of the country’s population has access to the internet and leverages it to jump into the digital world and do blockchain gaming, video streaming, and social media. Lim sees these new market demands as something local business firms should accommodate.

“What is more important is the market base. From a consumer perspective, you see a very digitized Filipino consumer [market]. I think our internet access is still struggling, but we’re not too far,” Lim states. “Now it’s all about companies trying to understand this phenomenon and trying to create the platforms to accommodate these what [we] call new consumer demands.”

Delving into the popularity of AI, Lim shares that this new technology is a friend to many in the business world. However, those in this field must understand and learn about the use cases of AI first before utilizing it.

How can leaders harness the benefits of AI to ensure that their employees aren’t left behind by these advancements? Lim explains that AI’s primary role is to ease the workload of workers and ease doing business.

“The essence of artificial intelligence means that the computers would start learning on their own. The essence of machine learning so that when you out a certain program, you allow these programs to grow by itself and make decisions faster for humans,” he explains.

nChain leads digitalization practices in the Philippines

It’s not just Lim who has the best interest of Filipinos at heart. On August 8, the global leader in Web3 and blockchain solutions, nChain, officially launched the Block Dojo Philippines, aiming to gear up the Filipino startup ecosystem and upskill the country’s workforce with emerging technologies like the blockchain.

Aside from developing the startup space, the 12-week incubator program will provide an avenue for business by creating new products to help Filipinos with their daily lives. Leaning on the Marcos administration’s goal for a digital future, nChain would lead the incubator program with the help of local agencies such as the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

In other news, Lim shares their next initiatives for the Philippine Blockchain Week 2023 “Breakout,” officially launching on September 18 – 21. Unlike the previous event, Lim shares that this second event would address the myths about blockchain technology and provide far better insights into how emerging technologies like AI and digital currency work.

“We want to help drive [blockchain] innovation in companies. We have to help drive innovation and adoption by our government and at the same time be also one of the proponents of adopting blockchain,” Lim remarks.

 Watch: Web3 is natural progression of technology