Hong Kong businesses are lagging behind their own staff in embracing artificial intelligence, affecting the impact and efficiency of digital transformation, a new Microsoft study has found.
Less than 20 percent of Hong Kong AI users surveyed said their corporate leadership has rolled out a “clear and consistent” AI strategy, while only 10 percent indicated that they were rewarded for reinventing work with AI when such efforts failed to yield immediate returns, according to the 2026 Work Trend Index.
“This is the Transformation Paradox facing Hong Kong today,” said Leo Liu, general manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macao. Transformation Paradox refers to a disconnect where individual employees are quick to embrace AI tools, but their employers trail behind in building supportive corporate cultures, providing leadership backing, and establishing talent reward frameworks.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, based its results on the poll of 20,000 AI users in 10 markets worldwide, including 2,000 Hong Kong knowledge workers.
To bridge the digital transformation gap, it is essential for companies to fully integrate corporate culture, managerial support, and talent strategies, Liu said.
He stressed that businesses should develop culture and development practices that support the use of AI and increase rewards for workers using the technology to sustain competitiveness amid the AI-driven work landscape.
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Nancy Wang, head of LinkedIn Greater China, noted that amid the rapidly evolving environment, enterprises’ true competitiveness no longer lies in mastering a single technology, but in their capacity to foster continuous learning and agile skill upgrading.
She called on businesses to take an open attitude towards AI and step up operational changes to maintain competitiveness in the market.
Hong Kong is grappling with a declining workforce as its population ages. The city’s labor shortage is expected to reach 180,000 workers by 2028, according to the projections from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.
AI advancement is forecast to bring fundamental changes in skill requirements to up to 70 percent of Hong Kong jobs by 2030 and the technology may reshape up to 80 percent of job functions in sectors such as finance and professional services.
Globally, the labor market is undergoing a profound downturn, with overall hiring scale falling below pre-pandemic levels and professional mobility dropping to a decade-long low, according to a latest report from LinkedIn.
While the competition for talent among companies persists, the focus has shifted from “hiring for roles” to “hiring for skills”, Wang said.
The mismatch between employers and job seekers is widening across the Asia-Pacific region. The report found that while 75 percent of recruiters report mounting difficulties in securing qualified candidates, more than half of professionals in the region are hunting for new job opportunities this year — 58 percent in Singapore, 51 percent in Australia and 72 percent in India.
The gap indicates that traditional recruitment models have failed to keep up with the speed of skill evolution, the report showed.
Chen Ziyu contributed to this story.
