Smart Communications, Inc., the wireless arm of PLDT Inc., and Amihan Global Strategies, Inc. have launched AI.Smart, an AI workspace powered by Avtica that is billed directly to a subscriber’s Smart or TNT mobile account, with credit packs starting at ₱49.
The service is built around a specific Philippine barrier to AI access: most global AI subscriptions run about US$20 a month and require a credit card, while most Filipino mobile users are prepaid and many have never held one. AI.Smart is designed to remove both obstacles by pricing a week of access at the cost of a cup of coffee and billing it the way Filipinos already pay for load, data, and other mobile services.
From a single chat interface, subscribers can ask questions about their own uploaded files and receive answers with citations, draft and summarize documents, build spreadsheets, generate presentations and images, and analyze data. The workspace operates in English, Filipino, or Taglish. Smart said uploaded files remain private to each subscriber’s own workspace and are never used to train AI models, and that safety guardrails apply equally in Filipino and English.
“AI.Smart is our step toward bringing the many benefits of AI within reach by more Filipinos using a user-friendly workspace – one that understands Filipino, respects your privacy, and can be conveniently 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,” said Lloyd Manaloto, First Vice President and Officer-in-Charge for Smart Communications.
AI.Smart runs in a dedicated AWS landing zone provisioned for Smart, with inference served through Amazon Bedrock, giving subscribers access to multiple underlying models – including Amazon Nova, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Thinking Machines – from a single platform. Smart said subscriber data is never retained by any model provider, is encrypted at rest and in transit, and is 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,” said Winston Damarillo, CEO of Avtica.
“We built Amazon Bedrock so that any builder, anywhere, can access the same frontier AI models that power the world’s largest companies. 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,” said Precious Lim, Country Manager for AWS Philippines.
AI.Smart offers four credit packs, usable across any mix of chats, documents, spreadsheets, images, or presentations: Solo at ₱49 for seven days, Flex at ₱99 for 14 days, Pro at ₱149 for 30 days, and Max at ₱499 for 30 days. The Pro and Max packs can be shared across a team or family. Packs are purchased inside the AI.Smart platform and charged to the subscriber’s Smart or TNT account after confirming a one-time SMS PIN, with credits added instantly.
Smart and Avtica describe the launch as a repeatable model – a national mobile operator, a local cloud region, frontier models through Amazon Bedrock, and a workspace tuned to local language, privacy law, and payment habits – that Avtica intends to bring to other markets across Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia following the Philippine rollout.
AI.Smart is available to Smart and TNT subscribers starting September 18, 2026, through AI.Smart and the LiveSmart app. Subscribers who download and register on the new LiveSmart app may also be eligible to claim free AI.Smart access through the app.
