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The Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has teamed up with Google Cloud to modernise its digital infrastructure and citizen services through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
This includes the AI Agents for Public Sector initiative that will enable public servants to use Google’s Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform to build and govern context-aware AI agents that can handle citizen inquiries in local languages.
For a start, over 50,000 frontline public servants are being equipped with the Gemini Enterprise app. Through a conversational interface, government workers will be able to query previously siloed databases – for example, pulling up pending building permit applications or deploying an agentic taskforce to analyse agricultural supply chain anomalies.
This capability relies heavily on Google Workspace connectors, allowing synthesised policy research or data charts generated by Gemini to be instantly converted into Google Docs or Slides for inter-agency collaboration.
According to DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda, the goal is to eliminate administrative red tape.
“Transformation is not defined by the adoption of sophisticated software tools alone, but by facilitating sustained systemic efficiency across public institutions,” Aguda said. “We’re empowering our public servants with world-class AI tools and upskilling programmes to help them remove bureaucratic friction, optimise public sector productivity, and deliver seamless, next-generation services.”
DICT is planning an aggressive rollout, targeting the deployment of Gemini Enterprise and Google Workspace to more than 200,000 public servants over the next 18 months. The department will actively track metrics such as frequency of use, cost savings, and productivity gains to quantify the return on investment.
Amid the growing use of AI tools and digital services, DICT has also formed a cross-agency cyber defence alliance to bolster the Philippines’ security posture.
At the National Security Operations Centre (NSOC), it has deployed Google Cloud Cybershield which provides AI-driven cyber defence at national scale with tailored and applied threat intelligence, Gemini-assisted security operations, and specialised Mandiant expertise.
To date, security teams from 56 government agencies have been onboarded and trained to use Cybershield, equipping them with native capabilities to triage and mitigate anomalies before essential public services become disrupted. DICT expects to have 90 agencies onboarded onto the platform by the end of June 2026.
To support the bandwidth demands of continuous, bi-directional AI agent streams, DICT’s partnership with Google also brings major upgrades to the country’s subsea cable infrastructure.
For example, Google and its Pacific Connect initiative partners are extending the Taiwan-Philippines-US (TPU) subsea cable system, which uses next-generation multicore fibre technology. Paired with the Apricot subsea cable that acts as a resilient path bypassing traditional geographic congestion points, the two subsea systems will link with local terrestrial networks and the DICT-managed Luzon Bypass Infrastructure (LBI).
The move will help alleviate domestic routing bottlenecks, allowing DICT to free up network resources to expand its Free Wi-Fi for All programme across public schools, hospitals, and community centres.
“Our collaboration with DICT is designed to democratise the benefits of AI, converting global innovations into localised, conversational public services that reach and serve everyone,” said Jennifer Ligones, country manager for the Philippines at Google Cloud. “We’re building a future where best-in-class enterprise AI capabilities and high-speed data pipelines act as public utilities.”
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