Dec 6, 2024

2 minute read Leading majority platform for global majority forum Tala recently underscored the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to serve the underbanked and underserved in the Philippines and its other clients in the world. “I could think about so many applications. But at the core of things is really all about the credit underwriting about using large language models. It is about using data to understand whether someone is credit worthy,” said Moritz Gastl, general manager of Tala Philippines, in an interview during a recent press briefing in Makati City. The global majority is defined as around 52 percent of the world’s population financially underserved without basic or adequate access to financial services, including borrowing, banking, insurance, payments and remittances. Gastl said Tala has actually been relatively data-driven since its inception pointing out that the financial technology company has very capable teams sitting in the US working on data modeling. For the past two years, he said Tala has been consistent in delivering the services to its 3.3 million members in the Philippines. He described the task of using technologies as not easy because it required a longer time for deployment. “Based on data points, we then estimate whether a customer is credit-worthy,” asked Gastl. Moreover, he said Tala is going beyond the use of AI to start the use of large language models (LLM). LLMs can automate and fine-tune several  tasks involving natural language processing. It can be used in a variety of industries, including business, healthcare, education, and law, to improve customer experience, reduce costs, and improve productivity. “And when we are exploring a bit with AI agents, I would like to figure out—let’s say a customer is overdue, how do we remind the customer in a very human way with an AI. This is obviously something that we are exploring at the moment,” he explained. Gastl said Tala still sees a lot of opportunities in the Philippines’ lending manifested by the presence of several lending companies. “We still feel like there is a large opportunity in the Philippines. I have looked at the lending market in the Philippines for more than 10 years. I’m always amazed by the presence of so many players,” Gastl added. Tala has disbursed over P100 billion in the Philippines. Rizal Raoul Reyes