Hong Kong SFC finds 30% of surveyed firms use agentic AI

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong said in its first Large Firm AI Readiness Survey that 30% of surveyed financial firms use agentic AI in business operations and another 25% are testing it. Uses include information retrieval, drafting, software development, operational workflows and some trading activities.

The survey covered 20 large firms with 78 licensed affiliates in Hong Kong between July and August 2026. Of those firms, 95% expect their AI use to accelerate over the next 12 months, 90% have connected AI tools to internal systems, and 90% use or are evaluating frontier AI models for cyber defence. Their licensed affiliates accounted for over 75% of securities transactions reported by licensed corporations in the first half of 2026. The findings are based on the firms' own responses and, the SFC says, are not representative of all licensed corporations.

Firms identified integration, costs, uncertain business value, data constraints and skills shortages as barriers to wider use. The regulator will focus its supervision on investor protection, cybersecurity, operational resilience, governance and human accountability, with controls based on each application's authority and potential impact.

"As AI becomes more autonomous, we must put humans even more firmly in the driving seat," said Eric Yip, the SFC's executive director of intermediaries.