Hong Kong SMEs eager to adopt AI, robotics and other technologies despite costs and skills gap: HSBC survey
- Emerging technologies are ‘democratising access to tools and capabilities previously exclusive to larger businesses’, HSBC executive says
- SMEs’ understanding of and readiness to employ new tech lags behind their belief that it will confer benefits, survey finds
Hong Kong’s small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are tapping into new technologies like AI to help run their businesses, as the growing availability of such tools – some of which are cheap or even free – helps them save time and money, according to an HSBC survey.
Nearly three-quarters of the city’s businesses feel ready to incorporate such new technologies within the next year, rising to 90 per cent by the next decade, according to the survey, released on Wednesday.
Blockchain, machine learning and robotic hardware are the top three new technologies SMEs said they are considering investing in, each cited by around 60 per cent of respondents.
“Small businesses want technology that will make them more efficient, that requires the lowest resources but delivers maximum impact,” said Ronson Chau, the head of growth at digital payments start-up Wonder, who cited productivity-focused tasks, like automating processes and drawing insights from data, as common objectives.
SMEs in Hong Kong number 340,000, accounting for 98 per cent of the city’s businesses and employing 45 per cent of its private-sector workforce, according to the government, which defines an SME as a non-manufacturing firm with fewer than 50 employees or a manufacturing firm with fewer than 100 employees.
