Smart Launches Prepaid AI Access for Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines — Wireless giant Smart Communications Inc. is expanding access to artificial intelligence by launching its own AI tool that could be purchased at prepaid-like costs. Smart yesterday launched its own AI site called AI.Smart, developed by local innovator Amihan Global Strategies Inc., to offer Filipinos prepaid access to automation. Smart first vice president and officer in charge Lloyd Manaloto said the tool is designed to cater to Filipinos who may have no capacity to subscribe to mainstream AI. Right now, the largest AI tools, such as ChatGPT, may cost at least P300 to subscribe per month. Manaloto said Smart wants to challenge that pricing by going as low as P49 for seven days. Once a user is subscribed, they will be given a set amount of credits that they can use to prompt AI.Smart. The credits, if left unused, can be rolled over to the next subscription. Manaloto said cost is becoming the defining factor for Filipinos when subscribing to an AI tool, especially as inflation is hot, averaging 5.2 percent in the seven months to August. The credits, Manaloto said, are enough for a user to prompt one to two tasks a day, matching the needs of many AI users in the Philippines, especially freelancers and students. Further, Smart offers larger credits and longer duration, but still at prepaid-like pricing, including P99 for 14 days, P149 for 30 days and P499 for 30 days. AI.Smart runs to a landing zone hosted by tech giant Amazon Web Services. When a user sends a prompt on the site, it goes to cloud platform Amazon Bedrock, where the AI looks for the best results from AI giants ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.