MAKATI, Philippines, 22 September 2026: Smart Communications, Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT Inc., and Amihan Global Strategies, Inc. today launched AI.Smart, powered by Avtica: a full AI workspace available to every Smart and TNT subscriber, charged to their mobile account, with credit packs starting at ₱49.
The most capable AI tools in the world cost around US$20 a month and require a credit card. In the Philippines, most people are prepaid mobile users and many have never held a card. AI.Smart removes both barriers at once: a week of use for the price of a cup of coffee, paid the way Filipinos already pay for everything on their phone, and built for the way Filipinos work, in their own language and on their own documents.
AI.Smart is a premium, localized AI workspace, not a chat window. From a single chat, subscribers ask questions about their own files and get answers with citations, draft and summarize documents, build spreadsheets, generate presentations and images, and analyze data, in English, Filipino, or Taglish. Everything a subscriber uploads stays private to their own workspace and is never used to train AI models, and safety guardrails hold in Filipino as firmly as in English.
“Millions of Filipinos already run their lives, their studies, and their online shopping and freelancing on a Smart connection. AI.Smart puts a real AI assistant right beside it, one that understands Filipino, respects your privacy, and can be paid for through your existing prepaid or postpaid account. At ₱49 for a week, a student can get help with exam preparation or a research paper, a freelancer can turn client notes into a polished proposal, and a family can plan a trip, a budget, or a celebration. That is a Smart advantage we want every subscriber to have, not just those who can afford an expensive subscription.” — Lloyd Manaloto, First Vice President and Head of Strategy and Corporate Brand, Smart Communications
Powered by AWS and Amazon Bedrock
AI.Smart runs in a dedicated AWS landing zone provisioned for Smart, with inference served through Amazon Bedrock. Subscribers get the right model for each task from a single platform, including Amazon Nova, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Thinking Machines, which is what makes a ₱49 entry price possible without compromising on capability. Subscriber data is never retained by any model provider; it is encrypted at rest and in transit and handled in line with the Philippine Data Privacy Act.
“The next billion AI users will not come from Silicon Valley. They will come from Manila, Jakarta, Mexico City, Bogotá, Lagos, and Dhaka, and they will arrive on a prepaid phone. This is how AI reaches everyone: not by waiting for prices to fall, but by building locally, pricing locally, and charging to the account people already have. The Philippines is first. The model travels.” — Winston Damarillo, CEO, Amihan Global Strategies
“We built Amazon Bedrock so that any builder, anywhere, can access the same frontier AI models that power the world’s largest companies. Amihan and Avtica used Bedrock to put those models to work for Filipino students, freelancers, and small-business owners—in their language, at a local price, charged to the mobile account they already have. When a student in Cebu can reach for the same AI tools as a developer in Seattle, that’s the democratization of technology in action.” — Precious Lim, Country Manager, AWS Philippines
Priced for every subscriber
Four credit packs, spent on any mix of chats, documents, spreadsheets, images, or presentations. Pro and Max can be shared by a team or family.
- Solo: ₱49 · 7 days
- Flex: ₱99 · 14 days
- Pro: ₱149 · 30 days
- Max: ₱499 · 30 days
Packs are purchased inside AI.Smart and charged to the subscriber’s Smart or TNT mobile account: confirm a one-time PIN by SMS and the credits are added instantly.
A model for emerging markets
AI.Smart is designed to be repeated: a national mobile operator, a local cloud region, frontier models through Amazon Bedrock, and a workspace tuned to the local language, privacy law, and payment habits. The Philippines is the proving ground; Avtica intends to bring the same model to markets across Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia with operators and cloud partners in each country.
Availability
AI.Smart, powered by Amihan and Avtica, is available to Smart and TNT subscribers starting 18 September 2026 at AI.Smart and in the LiveSmart app. Subscribers who download and register to the new LiveSmart app may also get a chance to claim their free AI.Smart access through the app.
About Smart Communications, Inc.
Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) is a wholly owned wireless communications and digital services subsidiary of PLDT, Inc., the Philippines’ largest and only integrated telecommunications company. Smart serves approximately 97% of the country’s population with its combined 2G, 3G, 4G LTE, and 5G network, providing mobile communications services, high-speed internet connectivity, and access to digital services and content to Filipinos, supporting the country’s growing digital economy, and providing the best customer experience for an increasingly digital Filipino lifestyle.
About Amihan Global Strategies, Inc.
Amihan Global Strategies is an agentic enterprise company that embeds certified forward-deployed engineers into enterprise teams to build, deploy, and scale production AI systems. Established in 2016 and headquartered in Makati with operations in the United States, Amihan serves Southeast Asia's leading banks, insurers, telcos, and conglomerates — including BDO, PNB, Landbank, Sun Life, Maya, PLDT, and Jollibee. Amihan is the exclusive provider of Avtica products and services in the Philippines, the exclusive Philippine solutions partner for Neo4j, maintains an AWS AI engineering practice, and holds the largest certified Claude architect bench in the country.
About Avtica
Avtica is an AI company on a mission to make capable, high-quality AI accessible and affordable to businesses and individuals in emerging markets, where the world’s best technology has too often been priced out of reach. Founded by Winston Damarillo, a Filipino-American serial entrepreneur with three prior exits, including the sale of open-source pioneer Gluecode to IBM, Avtica builds localized AI products delivered in partnership with leading telecommunications and cloud providers. The Philippines is its first market.
Media Contact
Bastin Adrias, Marketing and Community Activation Specialist · badrias@nmblr.ai · 09277085359
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