AMID the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI), the country’s chief economist said that the government use of the technology should still be subjected to strict monitoring and evaluation to ensure it delivers public value.
‘AI can support monitoring and evaluation, but AI itself must also be monitored and evaluated,’ Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said.
He said agencies should assess whether AI-supported systems achieve their intended results, work under actual conditions, perform fairly across groups and locations, and deliver benefits that justify their costs and risks.
Balisacan explained that AI systems can reproduce errors and biases embedded in their data and design.
‘An output may appear precise and still be wrong. A system may perform well on average while producing poor results for particular groups or communities, deepening the very inequities that public policy seeks to address,’ he added.
The Philippines ranked 49th out of 195 countries in Oxford Insights’ 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, with a score of 57.76 out of 100, above the global average of 41.40.
The country scored 69.17 in public-sector adoption, while it posted higher scores in policy capacity at 84.50 and governance at 70.84. Its scores were lower in AI infrastructure at 48.11 and development and diffusion at 42.46.
According to Balisacan, government’s adaptation to AI should also involve investing in reliable data systems, personnel who can critically evaluate AI outputs, and safeguards for privacy, fairness, transparency, and the integrity of public evidence.
Before scaling an AI-enabled tool, he said agencies should define the problem and expected results, test the system, document its limitations, and identify who will be responsible for review and corrective action.
‘They must also know what data are being used, whether these are accurate and representative, who may access them, and how privacy and security are protected,’ he said.
Balisacan said these safeguards are particularly important as government MandE systems continue to face fragmented reporting, uneven data quality, manual processing, and delays in delivering information to decision-makers.
AI could help agencies monitor programs more frequently, process field information faster, recognize patterns across large datasets and identify implementation concerns earlier, he said.
The Department of Economy, Planning and Development earlier said the Marcos administration is finalizing its AI framework, which is expected to help streamline government processes and improve project monitoring.
The framework is expected to be released this month.