Katrina Bayutas, a 24-year-old mother from Toledo City in Cebu province, held her baby tight as she walked proudly up the stage to receive her certificate for completing a three-week training on artificial intelligence data annotation.

She is among 61 women from the host communities of Therma Visayas (TVI) who recently graduated from the Elevate AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Data Annotation) program, which the company jointly sponsored with Aboitiz Foundation. Elevate AIDA is a special course teaching the basic digital skills they need to be part of the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

“Mapasalamaton gyud ko kay makatabang kini nga programa sa pangpinansyal sa akong pamilya kay makatrabaho na man ko bisan og naa ra ko sa balay ug makaatiman pa gyud ko sa akong anak (I am so grateful that, through this program, I would now be able to contribute financially to my family while being able to care for my daughter at home.),” Bayutas shared.

Elevate AIDA was developed by Connected Women, a social impact startup group, and launched in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic lockdowns. The program aims to empower women in rural areas with remote work skills, basic professional and computer abilities, and AI data labeling competence to become active contributors in the digital economy and AI industry.

With their newly acquired capabilities in basic data annotation such as image identification and categorization, Katrina and her fellow women graduates have found decent-paying work without leaving home. This fact carries exponential importance especially for these women — mothers, daughters, sisters — who are as dedicated and take great pride in caring for their families and managing their households.

“You have proven that when we are given enough resources, support, and trust, we are able to unlock our potential, despite the challenges we face,” TVI Facility Head Noel Cabahug told the graduates during the ceremony.

“Partnering with big companies like Aboitiz Group who are committed to creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for Filipinos is essential to ensuring that women are not left behind in the future of work,” said Connected Women Co-Founder Ruth Yu-Owen.

The Great Transformation

Beyond providing these women an opportunity to support their families, Connected Women’s Elevate AIDA program also seeks to empower them with skills that drive the growth of the digital economy.

“Data science and artificial intelligence is transformative, which means that all of you have the power to transform your lives and the lives of others,” AboitizPower Coal Business Unit Vice President for Corporate Services Ginger Tanchi told the graduates.

She also shared that the program closely aligns with the vision of the Aboitiz Group to become the country’s first "techglomerate," putting innovation at the forefront of its growth strategy and integrating technology and design thinking in all its production, services, and processes while advancing business and communities.

This program talks about our passion for data, our passion for digitalization, and it continues to affirm our passion to advance the communities by empowering women and providing equitable livelihood opportunities.

– Ginger Tanchi, VP for Corporate Services, AP Coal BU

The partnership with Connected Women goes beyond the training of these women as the Aboitiz Group has already collaborated with them in other projects. .  Apart from Elevate AIDA, TVI and Connected Women are working together to make the Operational Technology team make the plant smarter by standardizing the its boiler system naming convention, which involves encoding thousands of data tags. When completed, the plant will be able to generate faster and more efficient readings and dashboards that will help with monitoring performance and spotting possible issues.

Aboitiz Data Innovation, the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence arm of the Aboitiz Group, has also recently signed a Master Services Agreement with Connected Women covering additional services such as data handling, language annotation, and image annotation.

Story cover photo from Toledo City Public Information Office