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Hong Kong professionals are the least optimistic in Asia about the impact of artificial intelligence on their careers despite widespread use of the technology, with one in five expecting it to hurt their prospects, according to a new survey.
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Recruitment firm Robert Walters surveyed nearly 5,000 professionals and companies across 10 Asian markets in the final quarter of 2025.
The survey found that 58 percent of employers across Asia had introduced AI into the workplace, while 93 percent of professionals were actively using the technology and 75 percent believed it would have a positive impact on their careers.
The functions most affected by AI were administration and business support at 43 percent, followed by IT and digital transformation at 35 percent and accounting and finance at 32 percent.
Beyond assisting with data-intensive tasks, AI has also driven demand for emerging roles including AI product managers, data analysts and AI governance or risk managers, the survey found.
Mainland professionals were the most optimistic about AI integration, with 88 percent expecting a positive career impact, followed by Vietnam at 83 percent and Japan at 80 percent.
Hong Kong ranked lowest among the surveyed markets, with 66 percent expressing optimism even though 91 percent said AI had already become part of their daily workflow.
In Hong Kong, AI was most commonly used for chatbots and virtual assistants, as well as research and information gathering, both at 47 percent, followed by data analysis at 37 percent.
Confidence in keeping skills up to date was also relatively low, with only 59 percent of Hong Kong professionals saying they felt prepared for changing job requirements.
Meanwhile, 20 percent believed AI would negatively affect their career opportunities, around twice the proportion recorded in neighboring Asian markets.
The leading concerns were skills becoming obsolete at 41 percent, accountability for AI-generated decisions at 40 percent and the risk of job displacement at 39 percent.
The growing use of AI is also changing how employers assess talent, with greater emphasis being placed on employees’ ability to govern, interpret and contextualize AI output rather than simply producing more work.
Critical thinking and fact-checking topped employers’ priorities at 61 percent, followed by data analysis at 58 percent and creativity at 43 percent.
Ethical decision-making and machine-learning expertise were also considered important, at 34 percent and 31 percent respectively.
“Using AI tools has quickly become the baseline in Hong Kong, but knowing how to prompt a system isn't what makes someone irreplaceable,” said John Mullally, managing director of Robert Walters Hong Kong.
Mullally said the deeper concern among professionals was the risk of falling behind as routine tasks become automated.
He advised workers to strengthen their critical thinking, local market knowledge and ability to challenge AI-generated output, saying human judgment remained essential to creating business value.
