The Philippines is among thetop three markets worldwidefor artificial-intelligence feature usage on Rakuten Viber, according to the messaging platform. Viber said young professionals are among the most active users of its AI tools, suggesting that the technology is moving from novelty demonstrations into routine communication. The company’s figures point to a specific kind of adoption: people are using AI inside an app they already open for conversations, rather than treating AI as a separate destination. That lowers the friction for experimentation and everyday use.
Nearly 20 percent of Viber’s monthly active AI users in the Philippines are aged 25 to 34, followed closely by those aged 35 to 44. The platform said users turn to AI forinformation searches, translations, conversation summaries and drafted replies. Almost half of Filipino AI interactions happen through Viber’s dedicated ChatGPT Tab. Translate, Your News, Unread Recap and AI Reply are also among the tools that the company identified as popular locally, showing that convenience is a major driver of adoption.
The growth also raises a familiar privacy question: what information should people share with an AI feature embedded in a messaging service? Viber executives said the company applies its privacy and security principles to its OpenAI partnership, does not use users’ data to train AI models and does not have AI passively reading messages in the background. Those are company assurances, not a substitute for reading product settings or terms. Users should still avoid submitting confidential work, financial records, passwords or personal information unless they understand the handling rules.
Viber’s Philippine research found that 41 percent of Filipinos regularly use the app for work chats, while 46 percent use it to connect with businesses. The company also forecasts 16.5 percent growth in local monthly active users and reported strong gains in ViberPlus, Dating and business accounts. That makes the Philippines strategically important beyond AI. As messaging expands into business discovery and services,AI adoption will depend on trust as much as convenience—especially when one app combines personal conversations, workplace communication and automated assistance.
