Philippine-Built AI Hiring Platform Jia Takes Home the Country’s Sole ASOCIO 2026 Award

Recognized for AI in Workforce & Future Skills, Jia has helped more than 15 recruitment agencies cut daily candidate admin from hours to minutes, and is set to expand to Singapore and neighboring markets in 2027.

ASOCIO Chairman Stan Singh-Jit (far left) and fellow officials with White Cloak Technologies’ Donn Gamboa, co-founder, president and CEO; Sandra Carlos, Founding Growth Lead; and Kyla Kiunisala, Founding Growth Marketer (third to fifth from left), at the ASOCIO Digital and AI Summit 2026 award night in Jakarta on Oct. 6, where Jia received the AI in Workforce and Future Skills Award.

MANILA, Philippines, Nov. 3, 2026 — Jia, an AI hiring platform developed by Pasig-based White Cloak Technologies Inc., has won the AI in Workforce & Future Skills Award at the ASOCIO Digital & AI Awards 2026. It was the only Philippine recipient among this year’s awardees. Nominated by the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), Jia was recognized on Oct. 6 at the ASOCIO Digital & AI Summit 2026 award night at Swissôtel Jakarta PIK Avenue in Indonesia. The summit drew technology organizations from 26 economies across Asia and Oceania.

Founded in 1984, the Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization (ASOCIO) is a federation of ICT industry associations from across the region. Its annual awards recognize technology that creates measurable impact for business, government and society. The AI in Workforce & Future Skills category honors initiatives that use AI to strengthen workforce development and prepare organizations for the changing world of work. White Cloak co-founder, president and CEO Donn Gamboa received the award alongside Founding Growth Lead Sandra Carlos and Founding Growth Marketer Kyla Kiunisala.

“Standing on that stage as the only Philippine awardee was a proud moment for our team and for the Filipino tech community,” said Gamboa. “It shows that AI built here can hold its own anywhere in the region. But the measure we care about most is on the ground. It’s recruiters getting hours of their week back, and every applicant getting a fair and consistent first look.”

One AI recruitment platform for the first stages of hiring

Jia replaces the manual early steps of high-volume hiring with one connected workflow:

• AI CV screening assesses every applicant against the requirements of the role, so recruiters start with a shortlist instead of a stack of résumés.

• Conversational AI interviews let candidates complete first-round interviews asynchronously, at any hour.

• Applicant tracking follows each candidate from application to final decision in one place.

• Job posting publishes openings to Jia’s Hello Jia career portal and to job boards such as LinkedIn and Indeed.

Proven with more than 25 Philippine clients

Jia’s client base has grown to more than 25 organizations in the Philippines. Among them, more than 15 recruitment agencies have cut daily candidate admin from hours to minutes.

One of them is EMEA AMSI, a licensed recruitment agency that places Filipino workers with employers abroad. Preparing a redacted, client-ready CV package there now takes about two minutes, down from about two hours.

“What used to take me four hours a day, I now finish in five minutes,” said Joshua Belmonte, global business development manager at EMEA AMSI.

Why AI governance in hiring matters for Philippine employers

Filipino workers are among the world’s most advanced users of AI at work. According to Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index, 25% of Filipino workers qualify as “Frontier Professionals,” the most advanced category of AI users, compared with 16% globally. The same report found that 93% of Filipino AI users treat AI output as a starting point rather than a final answer. For BPOs, retailers and banks that screen thousands of applicants a month, the question is no longer whether to use AI in hiring, but how to choose it and govern it.

“AI can now take on much of the screening and first-round interviewing, but a polished demo proves very little, because demos run on hand-picked data,” Gamboa said. “Before any AI touches real candidates, test it on your own applicants for accuracy, consistency and bias. AI should do the legwork, but a person should always make the final call.”

A pivotal moment: taking Jia beyond the Philippines

Having proven itself with Philippine employers, Jia is set to expand to Singapore and neighboring Southeast Asian markets in 2027. The win in Jakarta also drew interest from investors and technology companies attending the summit.

“We built Jia for the realities of Philippine hiring: high volumes, tight timelines and applicants from every corner of the country,” Gamboa said. “Employers across the region face the same challenges. The interest we received from investors and technology firms in Jakarta makes this a pivotal moment for Jia as we bring it to more countries.”

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