Grab Philippines is teaming up with theInternational Trade Centre to help Filipino micro, small, and medium enterprises strengthen their digital and artificial intelligence capabilities, shifting the focus from simply getting businesses online to making technology pay off.
The partnership will bring ITC’s micro-business development expertise to Grab Asenso Learning Caravans in regional cities through the end of 2026. The pilot will cover Davao, Cebu, San Fernando, and Puerto Princesa, combining Grab Asenso: Digital Diskarte with ITC’s Digital PINAS initiative.
The goal is practical. MSMEs need more than a social media page and a QR code to compete in an increasingly digital economy. They need tools that can improve marketing, operations, payments, customer reach, and eventually access to larger markets.
Training will cover digital business profiles, online presence, branding, digital marketing, product photography, and AI-powered business tools. Depending on local needs, sessions may also tackle e-commerce, financial management, responsible technology adoption, and export readiness.
Grab will provide refresher courses on its Merchant AI Assistant and Tap and Scan to Pay cashless payment services, giving participating businesses opportunities to apply the lessons directly to their operations.
Grab Philippines Chief Corporate Officer Sherielysse Bonifacio said the company wants to build a broader “digital road network” reaching more MSMEs across cities and communities nationwide.
The partnership also adds an important measurement component. Rather than treating training attendance as the end of the exercise, Grab and the ITC will track changes in merchants’ technology use and business practices through assessments, surveys, follow-up check-ins, and adoption data.
That could make the initiative more useful beyond the classroom. Digitalization is easy to promote and harder to measure. The real question is whether an MSME sells more, reaches new customers, cuts costs, improves cash flow, or becomes more resilient because it adopted a particular tool.
ITC Country Program Manager Camille Roy said digital transformation is becoming increasingly important for small businesses seeking new markets, livelihoods, and greater resilience against disruptions.
The ITC, a joint agency of the United Nations and World Trade Organization, brings international experience in helping smaller businesses improve their competitiveness.
The program could therefore produce lessons extending beyond the participating merchants. If the data show which digital tools deliver measurable gains, the partnership could offer a clearer playbook for helping more Philippine MSMEs move from digital curiosity to digital capability.
In a country where millions of small businesses drive jobs and local commerce, that distinction matters. Going digital is no longer the hard part. Making digital work for the business is.
