A.I. in Business Analytics: The Future of Business Planning & Decision-Making Webinar

        Last September 4, 2025, I attended the webinar “A.I. in Business Analytics: The Future of Business Planning & Decision-Making” with Mr. Sonny Carlos, Head of Cloud & Data Business at Stratpoint Technologies, Inc., and member of the Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Association of the Philippines. The talk focused on how artificial intelligence is changing the way businesses use data for planning and decision-making. For me, it was an eye-opening session because it showed how AI goes beyond theory and is already helping real companies today.

Learning Highlights

        The speaker explained that AI has different areas, like Computer Vision (object detection and OCR), Predictive Modeling (forecasting and data science), and Agentic AI (autonomous decision-making). This helped me realize that AI isn’t just one tool—it’s a set of different solutions working together.

        I also learned the difference between using search engines and AI assistants. Search engines are good for finding facts, documents, and comparisons, while AI assistants like ChatGPT are better for creating content, simplifying ideas, and giving step-by-step guides.

        Another part I found interesting was about data analytics. The talk showed how data visualization, exploratory analysis, and machine learning models all play a role in understanding and predicting trends. The reminder that descriptive analytics (clean past data) is the foundation of everything really stuck with me.

Reflections

       One of the most useful lessons for me was the C.R.I.T. Framework for AI prompting: Context, Interviews, Tasks, and Dialogue. It made me see that using AI properly is not just about asking questions but about how clearly you communicate.

        The topic of AI Shame also caught my attention. Many professionals feel the need to hide their AI usage at work, and that made me think about how important it is to use AI responsibly and be open about it.

        I also liked seeing the Philippines’ own AI ecosystem, where government, schools, industries, and professionals are working together to promote AI. It made me proud that the country is moving forward in this field.

Feedback and Suggestions

        The webinar was well-prepared and easy to follow. The examples, especially in digital banking, showed how AI is applied in real business cases. I think it would be even better if next time there were short live demos, like showing how the C.R.I.T. Framework works in practice. That would make the session more interactive and easier to remember.

Final Thoughts

        Overall, this webinar helped me see AI as something practical and useful, not just futuristic. It showed me that AI is not here to fully replace people but to work with them. The message that “AI may replace some jobs, but it will also create new ones” gave me a more balanced perspective.

        The closing thought that “Tomorrow’s business leaders are those who master data today” inspired me to keep learning about AI and data analytics. I know this knowledge will be valuable for my future IT career, and this session definitely motivated me to keep exploring the field.

Images from the Webinar: