Legacy systems, cautious mindset hinder HK firms' AI transformation: AI unicorn Wonderful

Hong Kong businesses are still navigating legacy systems and a more cautious corporate mindset, artificial intelligence unicorn Wonderful said.

The share of Hong Kong firms set for wide AI adoption is projected to rise to 24 percent this year, from 8 percent a year ago, according to KPMG's Hong Kong Employment Outlook 2026.

But AI transformation for Hong Kong firms still faces challenges and remains a long journey. Many companies purchase AI tools on a department-by-department basis, resulting in siloed systems that cannot easily connect with one another, which leads to resource waste and extra costs for cross-system workflows, said Mirko Zhao, general manager of Greater China at Wonderful.

Rather than use AI simply to take over individual tasks that were previously done manually, they need to leverage AI as a catalyst for sweeping operational overhaul to drive a deeper transformation, according to Zhao.

There also remains a gap between prevailing policies and business needs. Hong Kong, as a traditional financial center with a tight regulatory regime, has held back many enterprises seeking to roll out AI agents for customers. The absence of clear guidance and formal approval procedures for agent deployment under existing regulation creates uncertainty for firms navigating compliance, Zhao added.

Payment operator Octopus is one of the firm's first Hong Kong clients for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's GenA.I. Sandbox++ program to build AI use cases across agentic commerce, customer service, marketing and other divisions, with oversight from regulators and infrastructure support including data centers, which is expected to run until around April next year, he said. 

Founded in 2025 and valued at US$5 billion (HK$39 billion), Amsterdam-based Wonderful has designated Hong Kong as its Asia-Pacific hub and is bullish on markets including mainland China, Taiwan, Macau and Malaysia, introducing global best practices from banking, insurance and telecommunications sectors in Europe and the Americas to accelerate AI adoption among local enterprises, the AI startup said. 

It primarily leverages state‑of‑the‑art foundation models like OpenAI now, but has also recently started exploring the development of its own data centers and chips to run its proprietary models, Wonderful added.

Frank Feng

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