Smart Communications, the wireless unit of Philippine operator PLDT, launched a bundled AI workspace on Thursday that puts multiple frontier models behind a single browser interface — with entry pricing of PHP49 (US$0.78) for seven days.

The service, branded AI.Smart, gives Smart and TNT subscribers access to AWS Nova, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini and Thinking Machines through one portal. It automatically routes each user prompt to what the operator considers the most appropriate model, covering content and image generation, document and presentation creation, and data analysis. The platform handles English, Filipino and Taglish input.

The pricing structure is the most notable part of the launch, because it addresses the payment barrier that keeps many Filipino users off premium AI tools. Subscribers can pay through prepaid load, postpaid billing, credit and debit cards and select e-wallets — meaning users without an international credit card, a common constraint in the market, can still subscribe using mobile airtime. A PHP499 plan extends access to 30 days and supports up to ten users sharing a pooled credit allowance, a configuration Smart is pitching at small businesses and teams.

Lloyd R. Manaloto, first VP and officer-in-charge at Smart, framed the launch as a push for wider AI access rather than a premium play.

"AI should be for everyone, not just for those who can afford premium AI services," he said in a statement. "With AI.Smart, we are making AI more inclusive by bringing powerful AI models and tools together in one affordable platform, giving more Filipinos the opportunity to use AI to learn, create, work smarter, and achieve more."

The build-out comes through a local partner rather than a global vendor. Avtica, a Philippine enterprise AI company, supplies the underlying platform; it specializes in localized AI products designed for delivery in partnership with telcos and cloud providers. That model positions Smart as an aggregation and billing layer over third-party models — an approach that carries lower technical risk than building proprietary AI, but also means the operator's differentiation rests on pricing, local-language handling and payment convenience rather than on the models themselves.

Smart is making specific commitments on data handling, a sensitive point in a market governed by the Philippine Data Privacy Act. The operator said everything subscribers upload stays private to their own workspace, is never used to train AI models, and is never retained. Data is encrypted and processed in line with the privacy law, the company added. The claim of zero retention is a vendor assertion; independent verification details were not disclosed.

For PLDT, the service fits a broader pattern of telecom operators in Southeast Asia seeking new revenue from AI services without heavy infrastructure investment. By billing AI credits through existing prepaid and postpaid channels, Smart can monetize the roughly 2.5 billion pesos question of low credit-card penetration in the Philippines — a market where prepaid load remains the dominant digital payment method. The PHP499 ten-seat tier in particular signals that the operator sees small and medium enterprises, not just individual consumers, as a target segment for AI-as-a-service.

Manaloto's team did not announce subscriber targets or revenue projections for AI.Smart. The service goes live against entrenched free tiers from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, so its success will likely hinge on whether the convenience of load-based payment and multi-model routing converts trial users into paying subscribers in the coming quarters.