Survey: Majority of HK companies say AI cannot replace human in app development

Majority of Hong Kong enterprises (94%) believe that artificial intelligence (AI) is less likely to replace human in app development, despite they foresee the supportive role played by AI in the industry, according to a survey.

Commissioned by The Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association (WTIA), “Hong Kong Mobile Apps Industry Survey 2022-2023” is sponsored by Create Hong Kong . In its eighth edition, the survey was independently executed by the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) between February and April 2023 by interviewing senior executives of 172 Hong Kong smart app companies with operations locally and in other Asian countries and regions through online questionnaire or telephone interviews. The survey aims to identify industry trends and needs, and invite recommendations for both the industry and policymakers.

According to the survey, 73% of surveyed Hong Kong enterprises plan to adopt AI in business, with 94% of them believing that AI can play a supportive role in apps development and will increase productivity by 1% to 24%. However, only 6% of respondents expected AI to replace programmers.

While 69% of surveyed enterprises anticipated that AI can enhance quality and efficiency, reduce human errors and cost, due to various reasons such as extra human support needed, existing teams cannot adapt promptly to the change and immature technology, merely 33% of respondents have increased their team size in response to AI, and 11% of them have increased their team size by 25% or above. In addition, 53% of respondents indicated that they lacked the skills and resources required for adoption of AI in their companies.

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Furthermore, the survey found that 47% of the interviewed Hong Kong companies indicated a shortage of technical staff, which remained more severe than that of management and sales personnel. Overall, 59% believed that the main reason for the shortage of technical personnel was a lack of skilled talent with related technical expertise. Among the respondents, 59% of them indicated that they faced the talent loss and shortage issues by recruiting part-timers and free-lancers, and 45% by improving remuneration package for staff retention.

In terms of operational challenges, 60% of the interviewed companies indicated that lack of staff posed the biggest operational challenge, an increase of 3% from 57% in the 2021 survey; other challenges included seeking new clients (36%), rental costs (35%), and long product development cycle and over budget (24%).

Among the applications developed by the respondents, 92% were of business application and eCommerce types, and 35% were of information platform type. The proportion of applications in the game category increased significantly from 9% in the 2021 survey to 27% in the survey. In terms of technology, the adoption of Near Field Communication (NFC) increased from 19% to 51% in the survey, indicating that NFC has become the most commonly used technology in applications, followed by AI/Machine learning (AL/ML) new technology and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which ranked the second and third respectively.

Keith Li, chairman of the WTIA, said: “AI still necessitates human input and operation, and nearly 95% of Hong Kong enterprises remain undaunted by its emergence, acknowledging its potential to enhance employee and business efficiency. The key takeaway is not that AI will supplant jobs, but rather that individuals who can master and effectively utilise AI will replace those who stay complacent.”

Alex Chan, general manager, digital transformation of the HKPC, said: “The talent shortage remains a major challenge for business. In addition to considering more flexible forms of employment or improving benefits to attract talent, companies can also provide appropriate skills training (such as AI) for existing employees to enhance their work efficiency in order to remain competitive. Enterprises should not view AI as exclusive to the IT or software development departments, but rather consider how to adopt it across various departments.

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