Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission finds 30% agentic AI adoption among surveyed firms, outlines oversight priorities

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its first Large Firm AI Readiness Survey, finding that 30% of the 20 firms surveyed already use agentic artificial intelligence (AI) and 25% are piloting it. These systems can determine and execute steps toward an objective with limited human direction, although reported autonomy varies. Overall, 95% expect their AI use to increase over the next 12 months, and 90% already connect AI tools to internal systems. Conducted in July and August 2026, the survey covered 78 affiliated licensed corporations accounting for over 75% of securities turnover reported by licensed corporations for the six months ended June 30, 2026. Technology integration and moving pilots into production were the most commonly reported adoption barriers. Extending governance, lifecycle controls and inventories across growing AI use was the most frequently cited governance challenge. The findings reflect firms’ own responses, not independent assessments of control effectiveness, and are not representative of all licensed corporations. The findings will inform supervisory priorities covering investor protection, cybersecurity and operational resilience, AI governance, and capability building. Firms should preserve human accountability through clear objectives, defined limits on access and authorised actions, and effective monitoring and intervention. Controls should be proportionate to an application’s authority and potential impact rather than require manual approval of every output or action. This emphasis is consistent with SFC Chief Executive Officer Julia Leung’s September remarks at a Hong Kong Association of Banks luncheon, where she discussed whether further guidance was needed to apply existing regulatory principles to agentic AI.