Report: The Philippines uses AI to counter burnout at work, while Singapore uses AI to deepen knowledge work

Deep Tide TechFlow update: On July 28, according to e27, Google released the “2026 Southeast Asia Gemini Report,” which shows that weekly usage of professional productivity prompt words in the Southeast Asia region rose by 30% compared with ordinary days, and AI has been deeply integrated into the rhythm of the workplace.

The report notes that the Philippines—home to a large BPO (business process outsourcing) industry—sees nearly three times the average Southeast Asia usage of customer service-related prompt words. AI is used to ease communication pressure on customer service staff and reduce repetitive document work, and it has been dubbed the “fatigue barrier.” The Philippines is also the only market in the region where requests from female users exceed those from male users, with writing and job-search-related needs particularly prominent.

Singapore leads globally in Gemini usage per user, with 60% of prompts coming from desktop. Users on average initiate nearly 10 interactions per day, mainly for knowledge work such as code debugging, data cleansing, presentation slide summarization, and in-depth research.

During the weekend, overall creative and leisure prompt usage across Southeast Asia increased by 12%, and AI use cases expanded from the workplace into everyday life areas such as personal finance, travel planning, and healthy eating.