Despite the advancements of technology used in the workplace, the core members of a functioning office/unit of an organization are its people, the ones operating behind a screen. Transitioning into a digitalized system of operations in an institution like UP Manila entails more than just ensuring that the records and archival methods are accessible and in order, but also ensuring that the staff is on par with the changes happening within their office, through their skills as well as their personality. After all, the culture of continuous growth has become essential in fostering a community towards a progressive society.

Recognizing this, the Human Resource Development Office (HRDO) has organized a personality development webinar entitled “MindShift 101: Personality Development Training” on March 17, 2026, from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM which was held online via Zoom. This training aims to strengthen UP Manila constituents’ soft skills, emotional intelligence, personality, and professional growth that are crucial in ensuring personal and professional success in a collaborative environment. For this endeavor, Dr. Jerome Visperas Cleofas, a registered nurse and health sociologist from the Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences at the De La Salle University - Manila, was invited to share his knowledge and expertise on personality development in connection with the increasingly AI-driven society that we live in today by tackling the promises of AI for workers and work environment, the perils of AI, and how to protect the human artifice in an algorithmic world.

To begin with the program, the HRDO Director, Dr. Michael Antonio F. Mendoza, graced the event with motivational welcoming remarks, highlighting the importance of the training for the employees to pivot a bit from what they have been accustomed to doing and embraced new knowledge for the betterment of themselves and the organizations that they serve. Like Dr. Mendoza quoted from a coffee brand campaign, “para kanino ka gumigising?,” he hopes that the training will empower its audience to change for the better and for the others in order to be more effective in their work, daily lives, and when dealing with their own relationships.

Dr. Cleofas opened the floor by raising the question on how we can protect our human intelligence in a world driven by AI or technology or as he said in verbatim, “paano protektahan ang pagiging tao.” He answered that the bottomline of everything in relation to AI is about being intentional in our actions. To ensure that everyone in the room had the same understanding of the terms to be used during the training, he provided the operational definitions of terms such as algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) and a list of the everyday technologies, particularly social media platforms, that we utilize that are now incorporated with AI. He noted that AI has been in our lives for a long time already, its existence is just more visible today since it can now embody “intelligence” by gathering further context of a situation or scenario; therefore, raising the concern of whether the decision making of a person lies within themselves or the AI tool to which they consulted to before making a decision. Outlining the uses and gratifications of AI ChatGPT in a study, Dr. Cleofas shared relatable examples of the benefits of using AI ChatGPT given in a specific context, not applicable in a general sense.

Through AI integration within the workplace, the cognitive toll in doing tasks that could have been automated or what Dr. Cleofas described as 3Ds (Dull, Dirty, and Dangerous) have been removed from the employees, allowing them to focus on more empathetic aspects of work and life. This follows through the emergence of digital well-being in the workplace wherein AI assists humans in ensuring their well-being (i.e., AI telling you to stand because you’ve been sitting for so long). He added a venn map of ensuring sustainability and social well-being in one’s industry, education, and work by having a human-centric AI, green skills, and prioritizing well-being. Given that the audience are from a workplace environment, Dr. Cleofas also shared several factors when transitioning from a traditional to a digitalized workplace that encourages a positive digital transformation such as individual factors, group factors, organizational factors, and  the contextual moderators to achieve the digital transformation.

Work functions can be done through the use of AI; hence, Dr. Cleofas discussed the hypothesis, objectives, and findings of correlations between AI and workplace well-being of employees such as improving employee mental health, curating personalized programs, and predicting and preventing occupational risks. Also, the emergence of tech-reliance brings forth stressors coming from the technology itself or “technostress.” In this part, he expounded on the nature, antecedents, and consequences of succumbing to technostress. Aligned with this, he mentioned the emerging AI stressors and its impact on our lives such as the unpredictability of the future of AI, loss of autonomy in one’s life, ethical and moral conflicts, social erosion of an individual, as well as career disruptions; which brings the idea that our technology produces a bossware surge, wherein we are always monitored not by a person, but by technology through organizational emails, biometrics, and so on.

The duality of AI at work is expounded by Dr. Cleofas, particularly on the promises and perils it brings to one’s role, environment, identity, and management. He clarified that we can infer that we have reached a point of no return when it comes to AI usage and the best next thing to do is to adapt and ensure that we, as workers, will be able to make the most out of its benefits while maintaining our human authenticity and growth mindset. As of today, AI has become the ultimate threat to one’s professional identity and we would not want our lives to be positioned based on figures and percentages for AI in its nature is by having a fixed mindset through its algorithmic determinism; from its predictability and polished, curated, delegated actions. In contrast, a human growth mindset is unpredictable, evolving, and future-oriented that is solely authored by one’s resolve even if it results in messy actions. To give an example, he shared that students nowadays prefer to meet online than in person because they can’t stand the feelings of awkwardness when meeting up, stressing on the idea that how can a person grow when they have plenty of scaffoldings preventing them from experiencing life as it is.

Digital intentionality while taking care of the self is critical in a person’s resiliency from having an algorithmic mindset. Like Dr. Cleofas indicated, AI has become consumptive rather than intentional, necessitating becoming mindful, ensuring privacy boundaries, and disconnecting one’s meaning in life from platform metrics, when using AI-driven technology. Hence, he provided strategies to reclaim one’s narrative agency, beginning with prioritizing human-reflective time, algorithm regulation and transparency, having artistic and “slow” interventions, individual or collective tactics and movements, and pursuing temporal sovereignty or reconstitution of time as a domain for human flourishing than further resource for economic productivity. Similar to common self-care tips, moving towards safe spaces than spaces of appearance is an advice given by Dr. Cleofas. If all of these things are applied on a daily basis, the accumulation of better habits creates an algorithmic resilience due to one’s awareness, intentional self-authorship of thinking and actions, and through the collective action with one’s colleagues; ultimately increasing one’s self value, detached from AI and technology.

Anchoring on every advice and strategies Dr. Cleofas has shared, study-based models were brought to the discussion such as the ability model of emotional quotient by Mayer and Salovey. This particular model emphasizes the four processes of emotional information for better cognitive and social goals, wherein if one is able to perceive, use, understand, and manage their emotions, the more one can live their life with lesser stress. Another model introduced was the mixed model of emotional quotient by Daniel Goleman, wherein there are five aspects in order to improve one’s emotional quotient: social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and intrinsic motivation. From all the relatable examples Dr. Cleofas used to describe each aspects profoundly, he added that the reality that it is hard to be the one that has to adjust, especially when dealing with another person’s incapability to be emotionally intelligent, however, it is within your capacity to control your own emotions and which emotions can affect you from all the life’s stressors. In brief, having the digital emotional intelligence through attitudinal/trait emotional intelligence, digital competence, and online emotional abilities will allow an individual to manage their emotions and personality towards themselves and to others.

Given all the points raised during the discussion, Dr. Cleofas ended with a light workshop, encouraging the participants to write down three things after listening and understanding the training: the things they would start doing, the things they will stop doing, and the things they will continue doing that are aligned with today’s topic. Most of the participants shared about self-care strategies (e.g., journaling, building relationships, etc.) and to rely more on people than AI, as well as stopping to outsource something that a person can think of if they gave themselves time to think. Dr Cleofas used their responses to reiterate that knowing one’s emotions also enables them to project those emotions, since humans are inherently flexible and adaptable and it should continue to expand and not implode. He concluded that everything that was conveyed during the webinar does not lead us to becoming anti-AI, but rather being aware of how AI could influence us because at the end of the day, the choice is ours.

Accordingly, a question-and-answer session was held to give way for participants to express their concerns and inquiry. Some of the participants inquired on the usage of tech as a tool, how to stay curious and open for learning or having that human growth mindset, distinguishing between a ‘learning moment’ and a sign that something is not meant for you, and so forth; personal questions that intersect with work and life outside of work. Some also asked about manipulation of emotions through empathy in which Dr. Cleofas answered on emotional maturity and intelligence, knowing the context of why the emotion is happening and how the motion affects you in order to know how to face the emotion, either engagement or disengagement. A participant also asked for ways to find one’s core values and he recommended a book titled “Kokonology” which may help with understanding one’s core values informally.

A total of 235 UP Manila employees have attended and participated in the lively and eye-opening discussion of personality development in the midst of an emerging AI-driven society.

We, the Learning and Development Section of the UP Manila HRDO, strive to deliver training programs and caravans that are both conducive and beneficial to our fellow UP Manila constituents. Look out for more exciting updates on events that we’ve got for you here at our website!