Lopez Group corp gov training follows through on AI, cybersecurity

FOLLOWING through on last year’s topics, the annual corporate governance training of directors and officers of publicly listed companies (PLCs) associated with the Lopez Group, held online on Oct. 22, discussed practical artificial intelligence (AI), digital and AI fraud, and cybersecurity updates. Resource persons came from SGV & Co.

In his presentation on “AI in Action: Practical Uses of AI for the Board, Management and Operations,” SGV technology consulting principal Lee Carlo Abadia described the current landscape of AI adoption in the country, particularly mentioning real use cases in energy, property development and media communications where the Lopez Group has significant interests.

The biggest gains in AI use between 2025 and 2026 were in human resources for recruitment and employee training, in forecasting and predictive tasks, and in customer service such as the use of chatbots and virtual assistants. Meanwhile, the most frequent current uses of AI remain in automating routine tasks like data entry, report generation and scheduling, data and trend analysis, and content generation including drafting emails, reports, marketing copy and social media content.

Abadia reminded the audience that risk-based human review is essential to reap automation benefits from AI. He also recommended ISO 42001 as a practical framework for AI policy and governance as it defines requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving AI management systems.

In his discussion of “Digital and AI Fraud,” SGV director for forensic and integrity services and certified fraud examiner Glenn Garcia said higher digital engagement drove greater fraud risk exposure as 91% of Filipinos conducted at least part of their account management activities online such as address changes, account name updates and other modifications. Thirty-eight percent of Filipinos reported losing money due to email, online, phone call or text messaging fraud in 2025.

Garcia recommended as leading practices establishing an AI governance framework; strengthening human oversight; using AI for continuous monitoring, detection and fraud risk assessments including shifting to “real-time exception identification, automated policy checks and behavior anomaly detection”; and upskilling people and organizational functions by investing in AI literacy, prompting techniques, AI governance, AI risk management and ethical AI. “The most effective compliance program combinesAI speed and analytical capabilities with human judgment, experience and accountability. The goal is not for AI to make decisions but rather for AI to help people make better decisions,” Garcia said.

For “Cybersecurity in the Age of AI: Protecting Critical Business Services in a Machine-Speed World,” SGV consulting partner Alvin Manuel recognized that while cyber risk has always been on the board and management’s agenda, the speed and scale of cyber risk has grown exponentially in the last six months. With AI being used to find weaknesses in software and making cyberattacks highly probable, focus has had to shift from cybersecurity, firewalls and defense to cyber resilience which covers business resilience, regulatory accountability and oversight.

He said: “Cyber risk is undergoing a fundamental transformation from managing individual vulnerabilities to managing enterprise resilience at scale,” which is very closely linked to the organization’s business continuity plan. Cyber resilience asks what must be done if an attack succeeds and requires identifying the most critical parts of the organization to constitute the “minimum viable company” so that these are prioritized for recovery in case of disruption.

Manuel reminded participants that cyber is now a shareholder event and a company will be judged according to the discipline and timeliness of its decisions: “Protect what is critical.” AI brings real opportunity but needs strong governance.

Approximately 150 participants were in the webinar representing ABS-CBN Corporation, ABS-CBN Holdings Corporation, First Gen Corporation, First Philippine Holdings Corporation, Lopez Holdings Corporation and Rockwell Land Corporation as well as Energy Development Corporation and ultimate parent Lopez Inc. The training was part of the Lopez Group’s practice of good corporate governance, which contributes to long-term success by considering the Group’s impact on its stakeholders and the nation.