AI adoption rises in Hong Kong: CPA Australia survey

A CPA Australia survey recovered that astir Hong Kong businesses are present utilizing AI tools to boost productivity, but this inclination is besides altering accounting and concern employment patterns, and raising information privateness and absorption concerns.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, 89% of professionals surveyed said their organisations had utilized AI successful the past year, compared with 69% successful the erstwhile survey cycle.

In Hong Kong, 88% of respondents reported utilizing AI solutions specified arsenic ChatGPT and Copilot astatine work. Of these, 65% said they chiefly relied connected third-party tools for circumstantial tasks oregon connected an occasional basis.

The increasing usage of AI is influencing recruitment practices.

Although 42% of Hong Kong participants noted nary observable alteration oregon said it was excessively aboriginal to tell, 17% reported that their organisations had chopped backmost connected hiring inferior unit for accounting and concern positions arsenic a effect of deploying AI technologies.

More respondents from Hong Kong than immoderate different marketplace highlighted information extortion and privateness arsenic cardinal concerns, with 26% mentioning these issues. On the different hand, 72% of those surveyed said their organisations had taken steps to instrumentality cybersecurity measures implicit the past year.

The study indicated that cybersecurity practices successful Hong Kong are mostly good established.

Other emerging trends discussed successful the survey see the usage of Managed Security Operations Centres (MSOC), wherever third-party providers grip real-time monitoring for cyber threats, arsenic good arsenic circumstantial information measures designed to safeguard AI systems from misuse oregon breaches.

The value of regular unit grooming connected information extortion was besides stressed.

Winson Woo, a a subordinate of CPA Australia’s Greater Bay Area Committee, stated that regulatory measures specified arsenic the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and the Protection of Critical Infrastructure (Computer System) Ordinance could lend to ensuring ethical standards portion supporting technological improvement successful Hong Kong.

The survey gathered feedback from 1,117 accounting and concern professionals passim Asia-Pacific markets specified arsenic Australia and mainland China. Of these, 154 responses came from Hong Kong.

CPA Australia Greater China councillor and Web3 & Emerging Technology Committee seat Paul Sin said: “Most respondents said that they utilized third-party AI tools, implying that the consciousness of AI successful Hong Kong is high. Yet, galore companies are inactive astatine the Proof-of-Concept stage, which means they conscionable usage AI tools to amended productivity similar handling repetitive tasks and automate process.

“In fact, the authorities and nonrecreational organisations tin bash much acquisition to unleash the existent worth of AI, for example, to reinvent concern models oregon alteration workflows by utilizing much precocious solutions similar predictive analytics and agentic AI, yet standard up to production-grade implementation to align with their strategical goals.”