MANILA, PHILIPPINES — After a year, the PH Cloud Educators Community returned to White Cloak Technologies on July 4, 2026, bringing together educators, technopreneurs, students, career-shifters, and technology enthusiasts for an afternoon of learning and discussion. This time, looking beyond the cloud, towards where the industry is headed. Diwa “Wawi” Del Mundo, CEO of Apperlabs and a tech entrepreneur, took the floor to walk the attendees through “AI Fluency for Educators” and the “State of AI Agents as of July 2026”.
Where The Industry Is Headed And How Do We Position Ourselves
Wawi Del Mundo, with over 20 years of experience in Software, opened the session using NVIDIA’s “AI is a 5 Layer Cake” article. The framework was leveraged to explain where the industry is headed and where the room, as educators, tech entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, might find their own footing within it. The deeper you are, within the layers, the more comfortable you can position yourselves for the next 20 years.
This segment also highlights the encouragement to the Filipino Talents, to explore the deeper part of these layers, citing that the Philippines needs more talent to understand not just how to use AI, but the infrastructure and how it really works. From data centers to chips, chips to infrastructure, and infrastructure to models and applications.
AI in the Classroom
In an open discussion in-between the talks, students present were asked about the current use-of-AI policies implemented in their school. One attendee noted that AI is fully allowed at their university with the course of them uploading the whole conversation that they used to develop. This invites highlighting the proper usage of AI, how they prompt and collaborate, which are then reviewed by their professor.
Some also note that they are either not allowed to use AI at all in the laboratory or the professors still haven’t caught up to the hype and capabilities of the tool. Right now, the Philippine Higher education is still split between institutions racing to formalize AI use and those some that are still catching up to it.
The speaker, a recent Claude Certified Architect, introduced the concept of the 4D Framework by Anthropic, a foundation that can be useful whether you are an occasional tool user, an educator, or someone who lives side by side with it.
- Delegation: Knowing what to hand off to AI, and when.
- Description: Saying what you want clearly and precisely enough that AI gets it right.
- Discernment: Knowing the difference between a good AI output from output that just sounds good
- Diligence: Staying accountable for what AI does in your name.
Building a Community That Learns Together
Nikko Cajayon, NextWork Community Ambassador and also the Host for the night’s event, highlighted that PH Cloud Educators Community offers a different value that most communities miss out. This community serves as a training ground for educators, future leaders, and enthusiasts to practice their skills in either speaking, networking, or just learning about the current trend in tech. This community also focuses on small, intimate gatherings to develop rapport and deepen personal connections that could transcend beyond industry, redefining networking.
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About the Author
Julian De Leon is a 3rd Year BS Computer Science student from PLM. He’s a proactive and steady presence in AWS SBG – Haribon as the Chief Technology Officer, volunteering in multiple communities such as Seekers Guild, PH Cloud Educators Community, Microsoft Azure Community PH, and other initiatives. With the emerging trends towards AI, he firmly anchors himself in his vision of “Keeping Human in the Loop”.
Through the roles that build his advocacy of proper-use of AI tools while still also generating human ideas, he slowly substantiates the significance of his value-led contributions for cloud, AI, and tech enthusiasts, as well as the masses that technology serves.
