For Aboitiz Foods, innovation goes beyond adopting cutting-edge technology. It means empowering people to weave digitalization into their day-to-day functions, trust data-driven insights, and strengthen their expertise while striving to do Always Better.
This commitment comes to life in our approach to learning. One way to integrate technology is by transforming traditional learning sessions into more productive, engaging, and interactive masterclasses using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. During the Business Process, Internal Control, and Risk workshop in the Philippines last August and the China Deep Dive workshop in China last September, Aboitiz Foods team members had the opportunity to explore new digital learning solutions and adopt a future-ready mindset aimed at enhancing efficiency and improving outcomes.
Stewarding excellence. During the AI-enabled China Deep Dive workshop held on September 8, 2025, Aboitiz Foods Chief Finance Officer Ebbie Mabatid led the insightful discussions and underscored the importance of alignment, discipline, and clarity in managing Business Process, Internal Controls, and Risk.
Harnessing AI to drive collaboration
Facilitated by Aboitiz Foods Chief Finance Officer Ebbie Mabatid, the Business Process, Internal Control, and Risk workshop used AI tools to ensure a smoother discussion flow and smarter learning with the guidance of “AI-Avatars” from the Finance, Project Management, and IT teams. These AI tools were also incorporated during the China Deep Dive Workshop to make it even more dynamic and engaging for the participants.
The AI-powered workshops equipped employees with technical skills and a forward-looking mindset. By making AI accessible and relevant to everyday tasks, the workshops led employees to view technology as a partner in productivity.
Throughout the sessions in both workshops, the team used Google’s Gemini in Google Meet to record and transcribe exchanges, adopting a faster and reliable solution to note-taking. This allowed the participants to focus more on the conversation without distraction. With its advanced features, Gemini served as the team’s virtual documentation assistant that helped them save time, brainstorm more effectively, and pay attention to more important matters.
From innovative concepts to concrete steps. In the Philippines, Business Process, internal Controls, and Risk Workshop participants immersed themselves into digitally driven creative discussions using AI tools such as Miro and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash, enabling them to focus on generating groundbreaking ideas and turning them into tangible plans.
Streamlining ideas into actionable plans
Brainstorming and strategic ideation have never been more immersive using Miro. This digital whiteboard helps visualize ideas, cluster thoughts, and transform concepts into action items as participants dive deeper into each point of discussion. Miro’s collaboration tools helped accelerate idea generation and boost creativity, encouraging active participation from everyone.
The highly optimized Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash assisted the participants in generating suggested action plans, mapping out activity timelines, and summarizing talk points. By streamlining dialogues, Gemini 2.5 Flash allowed participants to maximize their time, channeling their energy into building actionable next steps.
Condensing takeaways the AI way. With the help of Synthesia.io, facilitators of the two-day workshop were able to synthesize pertinent information and encapsulate the key discussion points into a video, complete with an avatar and narration translated in different languages.
Capturing highlights for better retention
Wrapping up both workshops in the Philippines and China, the participants remained engaged, motivated, and AI-empowered through Synthesia.io, a content creation tool that turns text into videos with avatars and voiceovers in different languages.
With Synthesia.io, the facilitators captured the session takeaways and gave a concise and organized summary translated into English, Mandarin, Bahasa, and Vietnamese. Beyond recapping the sessions, this AI tool helped participants overcome language barriers, gain a deeper understanding, and retain key insights, allowing them to apply what they learned with more confidence, clarity, and perspective.
Through learning alongside AI, Aboitiz Foods continues to discover how technology connects, refines, and optimizes processes across the business. Beyond the training room, employees apply what they have learned into practice and tap into the potential of AI to improve workflows, build expertise, and deliver excellence.
As Aboitiz Foods looks to the future, its technology-fueled workshops serve as more than just training sessions; they are catalysts for building a culture where people and technology progress together, driven by innovation, efficiency, and a commitment to always doing better.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this article about, and what is the core idea behind it?
This article covers how Aboitiz Foods integrated Artificial Intelligence tools into its corporate capacity-building workshops held in the Philippines and China in August and September 2025. The core idea is that innovation at Aboitiz Foods is not just about technology adoption – it is about empowering people to embed digital thinking into their daily work. By using AI to transform traditional training sessions into interactive, data-driven masterclasses, the company demonstrates how learning itself can be a catalyst for a future-ready organizational culture.
Which teams participated in these AI-enabled workshops, and what did they cover?
The Business Process, Internal Controls, and Risk teams from eight countries – the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Brunei Darussalam – participated. Two workshops were held: the Business Process, Internal Control, and Risk workshop in the Philippines in August, and the China Deep Dive workshop in September. Both were designed to strengthen participants’ capacity in managing financial systems, streamlining control processes, and reinforcing governance – combining conventional discussions with digitally enhanced interactive sessions.
What specific AI tools were used in the workshops, and how did they contribute?
Four AI tools were deployed across the sessions. Google’s Gemini handled recording and transcription, ensuring accurate capture of discussions. Miro was used for brainstorming and idea visualization. Gemini 2.5 Flash synthesized insights and generated action plans. Synthesia.io created video recaps of highlights and key takeaways. Together, these tools reduced administrative burden, accelerated learning synthesis, and made sessions more engaging – freeing participants to focus on strategic thinking rather than manual note-taking and follow-up.
Who facilitated the workshops, and what leadership priorities did they reflect?
Aboitiz Foods Chief Finance Officer Ebbie Mabatid facilitated both the Philippines and China workshops, underscoring the importance of alignment, discipline, and clarity in managing Business Process, Internal Controls, and Risk. The CFO’s direct involvement signals that AI-augmented learning is not a peripheral experiment but a leadership priority – part of a broader organizational commitment to the Aboitiz Group’s Great Transformation, which guides the group’s shift toward bold, digital-first ways of working.
What are the key takeaways from Aboitiz Foods’ AI-integrated learning approach?
Three takeaways stand out. First, AI can meaningfully improve the quality and efficiency of corporate training without replacing the human expertise at the center of it. Second, building a digitally literate workforce requires embedding technology into everyday functions – including internal learning – not just external products or processes. Third, these workshops serve as more than training events; they are proof-of-concept demonstrations that data-driven, technology-augmented working cultures can be built deliberately, at scale, across a regionally distributed organization.
