Insider Spotlight
- TELACon 2026 highlights how AI is remodeling Philippine textiles
- Human-centered know-how boosts precision with out changing creativity
- DOST-PTRI hyperlinks innovation, sustainability, and tradition via science
The Department of Science and Technology–Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI) is internet hosting the National Textile Convention, or TELACon 2026, from Jan. 27 to 29, 2026, at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, sharpening its long-running push to modernize the Philippine textile trade via science-driven precision.
Held as a flagship occasion of the Philippine Tropical Fabrics Month, the three-day conference gathers researchers, trade leaders, creatives, and policymakers beneath the theme “Stitching Futures,” with a transparent message that synthetic intelligence (AI) is changing into a important software the place textiles meet precision, effectivity, and international competitiveness.
DOST-PTRI Director Dr. Julius Leaño Jr. framed the theme as each symbolic and sensible.
“Stitching Futures highlights the art and science of connecting diverse elements into a unified whole and brings to life the DOST’s vision of making science tangible for Filipinos through the clothes they wear every day,” he stated in a press assertion.
Why it issues
As native textiles compete in more and more technical international markets, precision in testing, design, and manufacturing has turn out to be as essential as creativity. TELACon positions AI as an enabler that strengthens Filipino craftsmanship moderately than changing it.
Science and Technology Secretary Dr. Renato Solidum Jr. underscored this strategy, saying in an interview with Insider PH, “This is a culturally sensitive discussion on the use of artificial intelligence on arts and creativity. But for us, AI should not replace the ingenuity of our countrymen. But perhaps help them find better ways of doing things … it is very important to state that we need to have human-centered AI.”
Opening-day discussions additionally linked AI-driven innovation with sustainability and inclusive progress, aligning with the division’s Three-Horizon Science, Technology, and Innovation Economic Strategy to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises commercialize analysis and undertake rising applied sciences.
How it really works
Industry voices shared how AI is already accelerating analysis and manufacturing. Matthew “Chuck” Lazaro, vp of Asia Textile Mills Inc., stated in an interview with Insider PH that, “AI can help the weavers at least determine these properties of the materials that they’re using… and AI has really helped us at least improve or make the research faster.”
Leaño detailed how laboratories now use AI for textile testing and mental property safety.
“So what we do in the laboratory is to get cross-sections of the yarns and 1,000 samples of [yarn] and put it under the microscope … So when it sees it, automatically counts it,” he stated, including that generative AI helps quantify design originality past a 10-percent threshold.
“[I]ntellectual property must be different from the previous. So we use AI to be able to come up with a database and say, ‘This is 10 percent different from what is already existing,’” he defined. He additionally stated that whilst AI delivers sensible advantages, the DOST continues to prioritize its moral and accountable use.
The huge image
This precision-focused imaginative and prescient is mirrored in the KatHABI Textile Innovation Exposition, the place domestically developed applied sciences flip pure fibers into high-quality materials.
By pairing AI with sustainability, cultural preservation, and round economic system practices, TELACon 2026 positions Telang Pinoy as each a heritage product and a high-tech resolution for local weather resilience and inclusive financial progress.
What’s subsequent
With continued funding in AI, analysis, and collaboration, DOST-PTRI is stitching a future the place Filipino textiles compete globally via precision, whereas conserving creativity firmly in human arms. —Vanessa Hidalgo | Ed: Corrie S. Narisma