DITO CME HOLDINGS Corp. plans to extend investments in artificial intelligence (AI) as the corporate seeks to enhance operational efficiency while managing mounting capital requirements tied to the expansion of its telecommunication business.
“It shouldn’t be intently, like we’re going AI but we have a look at the issues, and we have a look at potential solutions and most certainly they’re AI, so we’ll invest,” DITO CME President Donald Patrick L. Lim told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of an AI and skill summit on Monday. “We’re identifying what the opportunities are and the way we are able to integrate AI to make our operations more efficient.”
He said unit DITO Telecommunity Corp. is exploring using AI for data mining and processing to hurry up internal operations.
In April, DITO Telecommunity said it had begun deploying an in-house AI platform geared toward lowering customer support costs and improving operations support scalability.
The AI push comes as DITO CME works to handle a widening capital deficiency driven by continued spending on the rollout of DITO Telecommunity’s network.
The corporate posted a complete comprehensive net lack of P35.91 billion in 2025, leading to a capital deficiency of P100 billion. As of end-March, the deficiency had widened to P117.73 billion, in line with its financial report.
DITO CME attributed the losses to pre-operating and startup costs tied to DITO Telecommunity’s network expansion.
On May 29, the corporate announced an updated marketing strategy that features several capital-raising activities, corresponding to equity conversions and personal placements, to support funding requirements.
DITO CME said it plans to convert about P21.8 billion in shareholder advances into equity between 2026 and 2027.
The conversion covers advances from parent firm Udenna Corp., China Telecommunications Corp., Xterra Ventures Pte. Ltd., Summit Telco Corp. Pte. Ltd. and Summit Telco Holdings Corp.
The corporate can be evaluating one other follow-on offering or stock rights offering, subject to market conditions, to support DITO Telecommunity’s network expansion and operations.
As of end-March, DITO Telecommunity said it had reached 7,347 telecommunication towers, covering 86.4% of the country.
Shares of DITO CME fell 5.06% to P0.75 each. — Ashley Erika O. Jose