Accenture: Hong Kong companies' expectations for the value of AI are high, and there is still a gap in scale transformation

The Zhitong Finance App learned that consulting firm Accenture (Accenture) first released the “2026 Hong Kong AI Index - Achieving the AI Advantage of Enterprises” report, which revealed that Hong Kong enterprises have high expectations for the business value that AI can create, yet only a few AI investment projects have been implemented on a large scale, reflecting that the company has not fully transformed investment into actual business value.

According to the study, surveyed Hong Kong business executives expect that in the next 18 months, large-scale applications of generative AI are expected to increase productivity and revenue by 15% and 14% respectively, while reducing operating costs by 11%. However, there is still a clear gap between Hong Kong companies' AI development ambitions and implementation results. Currently, only 12% of strategic generative Al projects have actually been applied on a large scale.

Zhu Hong, global vice president of Accenture and chairman of Greater China, said that in order to fully apply AI, it is necessary to break out of a single technology project framework and make systematic plans from the perspective of overall enterprise transformation. Corporate management needs to establish clear strategies, and employees also need to participate widely, while comprehensively improving the technical foundation, business processes, organizational structure and governance mechanisms.

Ha Yihui, president of Accenture Greater China Hong Kong, said that Hong Kong has favorable conditions to drive AI growth, and enterprises should integrate AI into the entire business process as soon as possible on the basis of pilot projects to address challenges such as reduced labor and slowing productivity growth, and seize the opportunities brought by the “Al+” initiative to turn technology investors into actual competitive advantages.

Accenture's “Hong Kong AI Index” establishes a cross-industry framework to study and evaluate the degree of readiness of Hong Kong companies to apply AI on a large scale in 10 competencies. Meanwhile, from March to April 2026, the study interviewed 150 top management and senior executives of Hong Kong companies. The companies surveyed covered nine major industries, including banking, insurance, consumer goods and services, utilities, retail and tourism, public services, communications, media and industry. The annual revenue of the surveyed companies ranged from less than US$500 million to more than US$50 billion.