SINGAPORE — Filipino consumers are increasingly comfortable using artificial intelligence for routine customer-service tasks, but many still expect AI systems to remember previous interactions and disclose when they are dealing with a machine.
Twilio’s 2026 Customer Insights Series found that AI agents now handle 46 percent of customer-service conversations in the Philippines, with businesses expecting the figure to reach 61 percent by 2027.
Yet 73 percent of Filipino consumers said they still have to repeat information during automated interactions, a problem Twilio calls “AI amnesia” — when an AI system loses or fails to retrieve previous context or interaction history.
The findings highlight a gap between business expectations and customer experience. While 74 percent of Philippine organizations said their AI agents can recognize returning customers and access their history, 73 percent of consumers said they still have to repeat information.
Thomas Wyatt, chief operating officer of Twilio, said the problem stems partly from the separation between the general knowledge of large language models and the proprietary information companies maintain about their customers.
“AI, the way we define it, is largely general intelligence. It's horizontal understanding,” Wyatt said in an interview on the sidelines of Signal Singapore 2026 on Sept. 17.
Large language models have access to extensive information, he said, but do not necessarily know enough about an individual customer.
“The difference is you have to connect the memory of the brand's understanding of the consumer with the general-purpose knowledge of an AI assistant or an AI large language model,” Wyatt said.
He said companies need to connect AI systems with customer data if they want to deliver personalized interactions.
“If a customer is thinking that the AI is going to give them a personalized response, unless you've connected it to your data warehouse or your customer memory layer, it's very difficult to personalize the response,” he said.
AI adoption grows
Despite concerns about AI’s limitations, Filipino consumers are increasingly familiar with the technology. Twilio found that 81 percent have interacted with an AI service tool, while 79 percent believe customer-service AI bots have improved over the past year.
Consumers are particularly receptive to routine tasks. Eighty-nine percent would allow AI to schedule an appointment, while 87 percent were comfortable with AI making dinner reservations or processing returns. Another 85 percent were willing to let AI select concert seats.
Trust declines when AI handles more sensitive transactions. Only 61 percent were comfortable with AI processing payments, 58 percent with initiating loan applications and 54 percent with handling medical inquiries.
Transparency matters
The study also found that 73 percent of Filipino consumers want brands to disclose upfront that they are interacting with AI. Only 26 percent of Philippine organizations said they disclose the AI identity at the beginning of every interaction.
Wyatt cited Philippine Airlines as an example of giving customers a choice between interacting with AI and waiting for a human agent.
The study found that the ability to switch seamlessly to a human representative was the most important factor contributing to consumer comfort, cited by 29 percent of respondents. Another 26 percent preferred human oversight for major decisions.
Eighty percent of Philippine organizations have implemented or piloted human-in-the-loop systems, while 51 percent said such systems are already standard operational practice.
Wyatt said AI will not eliminate human customer-service agents.
“There’s certain types of interactions... that are just better served with humans,” he said.
As AI handles more routine interactions, he expects human assistance to become more specialized and focused on complex or high-value situations.
For Twilio, the Philippines is also a growing market. Wyatt said the company does not disclose revenue figures by country, but Asia-Pacific and Japan has been growing faster than the company's overall average, with the Philippines among the fast-growing markets in the region.
Twilio surveyed 7,652 consumers and 660 business leaders across 18 markets, including 353 consumers and 35 business leaders in the Philippines, from April 9 to May 1, 2026.
