Technology Adoption: A Policy-Centric Analysis of the Philippines' Preparedness to Embrace Conversational AI

Disruptive technologies always have their pros and cons. To harness the benefits while mitigating the drawbacks, it's crucial to establish policies and regulations to govern their adoption. Artificial Intelligence (AI), the driving force of Industry 4.0, aims to enkindle the economy and promote inclusive growth in the Philippines. Conversational AI, an emerging technology in the realm of AI, has the power to change the landscape of industries. The primary goal is to enable machines to communicate with humans using natural language, enhancing human-computer interaction. It can potentially reduce labor costs by up to 30% and improve services through its vast information storage, continuous operation, and high client capacity. However, the adoption has several barriers. These include the risk of job displacement, ethical concerns, and privacy violations during its nascent stages, potential exacerbation of fraudulent activities, and a deepening digital divide. Successful implementation demands advanced infrastructure, high-speed internet, robust research and development, a skilled workforce, and societal trust. This paper delves into the root causes of these barriers, explores existing government and private initiatives, and outlines action plans to overcome these challenges. It further offers recommendations and essential insights to inform policy-making and strategies that expedite conversational AI adoption while mitigating its adverse effects on the economy, industries, and society.

I. Introduction

Technology is the driving force of the nation's economy, its culture, and its society [1]. It has been utilized by humans for thousands of years, either for survival, work, or to convey power and influence. Technology is either developed or discovered-intentionally or accidentally. It evolved from simply manipulating fire and using simple tools to a highly sophisticated intelligent system that can emulate the human's ability and personality. With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), powered by digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI), the line that separates the physical and biological world from the digital and virtual world begins to disintegrate [2]. The swift advancement in digital technology, the thoughtless adoption, and the unconstrained implementation raised concerns in different sectors of society. Hence, there is a compelling need to create regulations and policies to mitigate these disruptive technologies' adverse impacts. An emerging technology is considered disruptive if it is capable of shaking the current order of things [3] by making existing products and services obsolete, creating new ways of doing things, displacing labor forces and creating new ones, and causing upheaval to the economy and society. Among the prominent but disruptive technologies for Industry 4.0 where policies and regulations are essential are Robotics [4], Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) [5], and Artificial Intelligence (AI) [6], among others.