72% of Hong Kong professionals use AI weekly, double the global average: survey

But HKUST study also finds that junior employees harbour deeper anxiety over job security amid AI’s growing adoption

More than 70 per cent of Hong Kong working professionals use artificial intelligence (AI) tools on a weekly basis, more than double the global average, but junior staff also harbour deeper anxiety over job security amid its growing adoption, a survey has found.

The study conducted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) surveyed 3,722 working professionals in the city between March and April this year, with more than 60 per cent of them aged between 30 and 49.

Some 72.7 per cent of respondents said they used AI tools at work on a daily or weekly basis, compared with a global average of 31 per cent cited in a 2025 KPMG study.

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini were the most widely adopted, used by 81.7 per cent of respondents, mainly for drafting documents, summarising information and supporting creative work.

However, only about a quarter of respondents regularly used more advanced AI applications, such as data analytics, image or video generation tools, or agentic AI systems capable of executing multi-step tasks with little human oversight.

The HKUST survey also found that perceptions and expectations varied among staff at different levels.

While about 70 per cent of senior managers said AI had increased their motivation to learn new skills, more than half of junior-level employees said they worried AI could erode the value of their existing skills. About 40 per cent of juniors even said it had left them feeling less secure in their jobs.