Hong Kong firms ‘cautiously’ adopt AI amid data acquisition challenges, study says

Hong Kong businesses remain “cautious” about building and deploying artificial intelligence (AI) applications due to challenges in obtaining high-quality data and uncertainty about the technology’s return on investment, a survey has found.

Conducted by Paris-based digital consultancy fifty-five at the Google Cloud Summit in Hong Kong last month, a survey found that many local companies had not yet initiated any AI-based projects. There were 138 respondents to the survey at the conference.

According to the consulting firm, this reluctance is due to “uncertainty about the initial investment and expected returns” because developing AI applications requires certain advanced technologies.

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Some 36 survey respondents said they have implemented AI in chatbots and customer service, while 35 respondents said they use the technology in select internal applications, such as performance analytics and alerts.

The survey also found that nearly 40 percent of respondents had not established comprehensive data collection and reconciliation systems, which are essential elements of training AI systems. About 29 percent of respondents said they were still in the early stages of building such systems.

“The effectiveness of AI depends not only on the AI ​​tool, but more importantly, on the data fed into the model,” said Ivan Yuen, Expertise and Innovation Manager at fifty-five.

The study found that overcoming challenges related to data quality and availability is “essential for successful AI adoption” by Hong Kong companies, Yuen said. He added that poor data quality and availability can result in misleading insights and bias generated by AI.

The results show that Hong Kong businesses have a long way to go in terms of AI adoption compared with the aggressive adoption of the technology on the mainland.

Still, the city is becoming an increasingly important partner in scientific research and development in the Greater Bay Area, spanning fields of strategic importance to the country such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, environmental science, clean energy and quantum computing, according to a new report published in May by information analytics firm Elsevier on behalf of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT developer OpenAI has tightened measures to block attempts to access its generative AI services from “unsupported countries and territories,” including mainland China and Hong Kong. This is expected to further complicate efforts by Hong Kong developers to build AI apps.

The survey of fifty-five people also found that the lack of adequate resources and skills is a major problem hindering the wider implementation of AI in the city.

The Hong Kong government has committed to using AI in innovation and technology initiatives set out in the city’s 2024-25 budget.

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