A MAJORITY OF HONG KONG COMPANIES ASSERT THAT AI CANNOT REPLACE HUMANS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF APPS

Most Hong Kong enterprises (94%) believe artificial intelligence (AI) is less likely to replace humans in the development of apps, but they foresee a supportive role played by AI in the industry, according to a survey independently executed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC).

Alex Chan, general manager, digital transformation at the HKPC, said in addition to considering more flexible forms of employment or improving benefits to attract talent, companies can also provide appropriate skills training such as AI for existing employees to enhance their work efficiency in order to remain competitive.

• 73% of surveyed Hong Kong enterprises plan to adopt AI in business, with 94% of them believing that AI can play a supportive role in app development and will increase productivity by 1% to 24%. However, only 6% of respondents expected AI to replace programmers.

• While 69% of surveyed enterprises anticipate that AI can enhance quality and efficiency, and reduce human errors and costs, due to various reasons such as extra human support needed, existing teams cannot adapt promptly to the change and immature technology. Only 33% of respondents have increased their team size in response to AI, while 11% have increased their team size by 25% or above.

• 53% of respondents indicated they lacked the skills and resources required for the adoption of AI in their companies.

• 59% believed that the main reason for the shortage of technical personnel was a lack of skilled talent with related technical expertise. Among the respondents, 59% of them indicated that they faced the talent loss and shortage issues by recruiting part-timers and freelancers, and 45% by improving remuneration packages for staff retention.

• In terms of operational challenges, 60% of the interviewed companies indicated that lack of staff posed the biggest operational challenge, an increase of 3% from 57% in the 2021 survey; other challenges included seeking new clients (36%), rental costs (35%), and long product development cycles and over budget (24%).

• In terms of technology, the adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC) increased from 19% to 51% in the survey, indicating that NFC has become the most commonly used technology in applications, followed by AI/machine learning and Bluetooth Low Energy which ranked second and third respectively.

Source:

Hong Kong Productivity Council