'HK brands must capture AI's full value,' say adland leaders on Policy Address

Hong Kong's latest Policy Address and the city's first five-year plan have focused on long-term planning, nurturing talent, promoting AI applications across trades, developing a regional IP trading centre.

With the theme "以長遠謀全局 以改革開新篇 促發展創機遇 惠民生向未來", this year's Policy Address embodies the long-term vision of the five-year plan, the government's blueprint for Hong Kong as a whole, driving reform, promoting development, creating opportunities, and extending the economic dividends of development to the people, so that they may share in the fruits of progress and embrace the future.

As part of the five-year plan, the government will step up efforts to promote AI applications across trades while balancing innovation and security, enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness in AI development.

Speaking at a press conference following the address, chief executive John Lee emphasised that technological advancement is critical to the city's future trajectory. "Among our four centers, our priority is to build an international innovation and technology centre. Innovation and technology drive industrial development and empower society as a whole, fueling progress across all sectors."

Lee also unveiled measures to support the integrated development of culture, sports and tourism which will help develop Hong Kong as an east-meets-west centre for international cultural exchange. "Hong Kong is blessed with a unique cultural vision, shaped by both Chinese and foreign influences," Lee said. "We will continue to engage and collaborate with Mainland and overseas culture, arts and creative sectors to consolidate Hong Kong's role as a hub for the exchange, collaboration and promotion of culture, arts and creativity. We will also host international cultural and arts exhibitions and performances to attract visitors to Hong Kong."

The latest Policy Address has drawn nearly 16,000 conversations in three days, reflecting a significant surge in public and media attention, according to media intelligence firm CARMA. Neutral conversation dominated the Policy Address peak, accounting for 50.8% of sentiment on 16 September, compared with 41.7% positive and 7.6% negative, indicating substantial active discussion and evaluation around the announcements. 

To execute this vision, the government plans to integrate education, technology, and talent pipelines by improving strategic coordination across universities, research institutes, innovation platforms, and private enterprises.

With talent recruitment and AI at the centre of the government’s long-term agenda, we spoke to adland leaders to share how these policy directions will impact the industry and shape business decision-making.

1. Ben Pan, managing director, Song, Accenture Greater China

The AI initiatives outlined will serve tremendously powerful to enable Hong Kong’s key industries such as financial and travel sectors. The HKMA Gen AI initiative has been a critical development to the banking industry and cross-border exchanges, and its expansion to other financial products will be key to enhance Hong Kong's position in the international financial markets.

The HKTB's push to adopt AI is also pivotal as Hong Kong companies have been experimenting with AI - it will be exciting to see both the public and private sectors make their next push into scaled AI. Another key point that the five-year plan also lays out is high-calibre talent, which is often an understated pillar for reinvention. We have seen in our organisation that having high-calibre and diversified talent is key to success in AI, and it is encouraging to see that this is one of the focused areas for Hong Kong moving forward. 

As all marketers and agencies ultimately focus on the customer, the latest policies serve both as an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity lies within that the five-year plan continues to lay out Hong Kong's aspirations for sustainable growth, and the encouragement on cross-border tourism and exchanges that will continue to expand the market for marketers.

The challenge is as Hong Kong solidifies itself as an east-meets-west centre, the underlying customer journeys do not have a one-size-fit-all pattern. As such, the capability requirements for marketers will also need to be increasingly diversified - the underlying marketing content, technologies, and cross-industry partnerships will be critical to transform and to harbour both domestic and global solutions in order to serve them well. 

2. David Ketchum, founder and CEO, Current Asia

The Hong Kong Policy address will have some knock-on impacts and benefits for marketing and comms. However, the focus is really on industrial policy and infrastructure. There are opportunities, but companies and their agencies will have to actively pursue them in the tourism, culture and IP sectors, and not wait for government-driven marketing-specific initiatives that aren’t coming.

The GenAI Sandbox++ expansion beyond banking into insurance, wealth management, securities and MPF is a significant move to leverage. One of Hong Kong's business advantages has always been to figure out compliant innovation together with regulated industries, rather than making one-sided pronouncements. Bringing AI upskilling investment and innovation to finance, healthcare, tourism and public service should further invigorate these sectors.

The IP trading centre push also offers potential upside. Hong Kong is striving to be where creative and technology IP gets valued and licensed, and that’s a genuine tailwind for branding, content IP and licensing businesses. What also stood out for me was the shift from Policy Address to a Policy Address + Five Year Plan (looking over a longer horizon and taking a cue from the PRC central government approach). Our industry lives on annual marketing and comms budgets and campaign cycles. Any long-term direction that smooths out the volatile up/down cycle of business in Hong Kong and business touching the Greater Bay Area/mainland is very welcome.

3. Helen Lam, co-founder and managing director, Paradigm Consulting 

Linking the annual roadmap to a structured five-year plan gives MNCs, large corporates and foreign investors greater predictability and confidence to invest and grow in the Hong Kong market. Against this backdrop, the outlook for B2B marketing is expected to remain positive. 

With the Hong Kong government's commitment to advancing AI across sectors, the B2B marketing landscape will keep evolving. Decision makers at MNCs and local enterprises are likely to realign their budgets as audiences change how they discover, evaluate and trust brands. In our industry, the years ahead will be defined by trust. 

As a local business owner, I appreciate the government's commitment to AI upskilling across sectors and its subsidies for AI applications and related projects. With its focus on general AI training support, local businesses can focus their own investments on industry-specific AI skills. For marketing and communications, AI fluency is a must and continuous upskilling is essential.  

2. Derek Yip, chief operating officer, Omnicom Media Hong Kong

Hong Kong's continued investment in AI infrastructure, talent development, research, and innovation is a positive step for the city's long-term competitiveness. The real opportunity is not simply accelerating AI adoption, but creating the conditions for businesses to move from experimentation to enterprise-wide implementation. If successful, these initiatives could help strengthen Hong Kong's position as a regional innovation hub while driving productivity, attracting investment, and supporting the development of high-value industries.

For marketers and agencies, AI will increasingly shift from being a tactical tool to a strategic capability. As AI-powered search, recommendation engines, and conversational platforms become more prevalent, brands will need to rethink how they are discovered, considered, and chosen by consumers. This will increase the importance of areas such as first-party data, AI-driven personalisation, predictive audience modelling, and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

For agencies specifically, the opportunity extends beyond helping clients deploy AI tools. Agencies will play a critical role in helping organisations navigate responsible AI adoption, develop governance frameworks, strengthen data strategies, and ensure teams have the skills needed to operate effectively in an AI-enabled environment.

One of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that its value lies primarily in automation and efficiency. While those benefits are significant, the greater opportunity is using AI to enhance decision-making, unlock creativity, improve customer experiences, and drive measurable business outcomes.

Over the next five years, the organisations that gain the greatest advantage will not necessarily be those with the most advanced technology, but those that successfully combine AI with strong data foundations, clear governance, and human expertise. Ultimately, the key question is no longer whether AI will transform business, but how quickly organisations can build the capabilities needed to capture its full value.

3. Silas Ho, SVP, client leadership at WPP Media Hong Kong

We're already seeing AI become part of day-to-day marketing. Conversations that used to focus on campaign delivery are increasingly about content production, planning efficiency and decision-making. Many of the Hong Kong businesses we work with, particularly local brands and SMEs, are interested in AI but are still working out where it delivers the greatest value.

The government's focus on AI education, infrastructure and adoption helps accelerate that journey. As trusted growth partners to our clients, we're seeing increasing demand for practical applications that improve productivity, strengthen customer engagement and support business growth. Hong Kong has a strong track record of embracing new technologies, and this feels like the next step in that evolution.

The tourism targets, talent initiatives and investment in new economic areas will create more opportunities for brands to grow. Many of the local advertisers we work with are already thinking about how to capture returning visitor demand and how to stay relevant as consumer behaviour changes. As growth partners to these businesses, we're often discussing where the next source of demand will come from and how brands can earn attention in a much more fragmented media environment.

We're seeing increased interest in creator content, tourism-related moments and destination-led storytelling, particularly on platforms that influence travel planning such as Xiaohongshu. Stronger economic activity generally leads to greater business confidence, which tends to encourage investment in marketing, innovation and brand building.

Elevate your brand with cutting-edge AI, emerging tech, and data-driven experiences. Join 200+ marketing leaders at Digital Marketing Asia HK 2026 on 27–28 October to uncover game-changing trends, proven playbooks, and the bold strategies shaping the future of marketing.

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