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CPA Australia Survey: Increasing AI Adoption Reshapes Future Roles in Accounting Industry and Rises Data Concerns in Hong Kong

Published

5 months ago

10/11/2025

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 10 November 2025 – CPA Australia’s regional survey about business technology adoption shows that most companies in Hong Kong have used artificial intelligence (AI) tools at different levels. Though the increasing AI application helps to improve productivity, it also transforms the hiring trends in the accounting and finance industry, and increases concerns on data protection and governance, according to the survey findings.

The result indicates the notable growth of AI adoption across markets in Asia Pacific, with 89 per cent of respondents said that they have adopted AI in the past 12 months, up from 69 per cent last survey. In Hong Kong, 88 per cent have applied AI such as ChatGPT, Copilot at the workplace. When asked about the level of AI adoption, 65 per cent respondents primarily used third-party tools in several areas or occasionally.

Dr Paul Sin, CPA Australia’s Greater China Councillor and Chair of Web3 & Emerging Technology Committee highlighted the gap between the awareness of AI and releasing the real value of AI, “Most respondents said that they used third-party AI tools, implying that the awareness of AI in Hong Kong is high. Yet, many companies are still at the Proof-of-Concept stage, which means they just use AI tools to improve productivity like handling repetitive tasks and automate process. In fact, the government and professional organisations can do more education to unleash the true value of AI, for example, to reinvent business models or transform workflows by using more advanced solutions like predictive analytics and agentic AI, eventually scale up to production-grade implementation to align with their strategic goals.”

The increasing prevalence of AI is transforming the recruitment trends across various industries including accounting and finance. While 42 per cent of respondents in Hong Kong said that there has been no change in hiring practices, or that is too early to say, 17 per cent said that their organisations have reduced the number of junior-level staff hired for the accounting and finance teams due to the adoption of AI.

Dr Sin highlighted the correlation between the hiring trend and the tasks being replaced by AI, “Survey shows that most respondents use AI for data analytics and research in their accounting and finance activities, and these tasks are usually carried out by junior staff. Clearly, AI can free them up from repetitive and tedious tasks, allowing them focus on more human-centric or strategic responsibilities such as advisory, decision-making and client engagement. The underlying skills are difficult to replace with technology such as creativity and judgement built from business experience. Grooming junior staff to take on these more advanced responsibilities takes time, so employers should consider balancing adoption of advanced technology with talent development for the organisation’s long-term growth.”

Dr Albert Wong, Deputy Chair of CPA Australia’s Greater Bay Area Committee added on, “AI is only replacing certain tasks, not humans. As AI develops, the recruitment standard for technical skills is rising because some tasks can be done effectively by technology. Employers will expect their future staff to be able to work alongside with AI to solve problems, use these technology solutions to add value to existing services and products, generate new ideas/options, and predict the future in various scenarios. The job market will become more competitive. Therefore, the younger generation and the existing employees must develop irreplaceable skills, particularly soft skills such as human-human and human-machine interaction, effective communication, creative and critical thinking, and professional scepticism.”

To keep up with the transformation, the Hong Kong SAR Government has an instrumental role to play. He called for policy support to build a future-ready workforce in Hong Kong. “The Government could collaborate with organisations and employers to upskill existing workforce on AI-centric training; offer subsidies to encourage SMEs to pilot/adopt different types of AI in their businesses and create internship schemes that give university students the opportunity to apply AI tools to real-world problem-solving.”

Data is the new oil for technology. Among the surveyed markets, Hong Kong respondents raised the most concerns about increasing data protection and privacy issues (26 per cent) from AI adoption. On a positive note, 72 per cent said that they had implemented cybersecurity in the past 12 months, and Hong Kong’s overall cybersecurity maturity is considerably high.

Mr Winson Woo, a member of CPA Australia’s Greater Bay Area Committee shared his views on data protection and governance, “Many technologies already have embedded AI functions, so AI adoption will continue to increase in the future. Organisations should establish an AI development roadmap to plan how to apply AI to achieve strategic goals, and how to measure the return of investment, as well as setting clear governance guidelines to ensure the ethical use of AI tools in the workplace.”

When discussing cybersecurity, he highlighted two emerging trends: Manage Security Operations Center (MSOC), a model of outsourcing security operations center (SOC) functions to third-party service providers to perform real-time detection and monitoring of cyber attacks and threats; and AI security, which protects AI systems from data breaches and misuse. He also emphasised the importance of staff training in data protection, “To reduce the risk of data leakage, companies should invest not only in technical software, but also in enhancing staff’s security awareness, to ensure that AI users understand which authorised data can be used in AI tools and which sensitive information cannot be disclosed.”

Mr Woo believes that the introduction of guidelines and regulations, such as the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and the Protection of Critical Infrastructure (Computer System) Ordinance, will help to create an ethical environment that promotes innovation and technology in Hong Kong.

The survey collected responses from 1,117 accounting and finance professionals across markets in the Asia-Pacific such as Australia, mainland China, including 154 responses from Hong Kong.

Hashtag: #CPAAustralia

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About CPA Australia

CPA Australia is one of the largest professional accounting bodies in the world, with nearly 175,000 members in over 100 countries and regions, including more than 22,500 members in Greater China. CPA Australia is celebrating its 70^th anniversary in Hong Kong this year. Our core services include education, training, technical support and advocacy. CPA Australia provides thought leadership on issues affecting the accounting profession and the public interest. We engage with governments, regulators and industries to advocate policies that stimulate sustainable economic growth and have positive business and public outcomes. Find out more at cpaaustralia.com.au

Media OutReach

Zuellig Pharma Reinforces Commitment to Japan through Its New Misato Depot, Advancing Clinical Logistics and Sourcing Excellence

Published

6 hours ago

26/03/2026

Media Outreach

MISATO, JAPAN – Media OutReach Newswire – 26 March 2026 – Zuellig Pharma today announced the successful relocation of its new clinical depot to Misato, strengthening its ability to deliver global quality standards with local operational agility and further strengthening its clinical supply capability across Asia Pacific. Japan remains one of the region’s preferred locations for clinical research, underpinned by its strong focus on medical advancement, rigorous ethical standards and commitment to healthcare.

Medical innovation across the region continues to accelerate, with China, India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore emerging as key pillars of Asia Pacific’s clinical trial ecosystem over the past five years^[1]. Against this backdrop, the move in Japan reinforces Zuellig Pharma’s commitment to supporting sponsors and clients with reliable, compliant and seamless access to Japan – advancing its broader mission to make healthcare more accessible.

The new depot will bring together Zuellig Pharma’s established knowledge assets, operational excellence, and clinical logistics and sourcing expertise. Backed by a highly experienced and expert-led local team, the depot delivers precision project management tailored to Japan’s intricate regulatory and logistical requirements, while enabling smoother coordination for multi-market studies as the clinical landscape continues to evolve.

“As sponsors and clients increasingly run multi-market studies, they need clinical supply partners that can deliver consistency across borders while navigating local complexity,” said John Graham, Chief Executive Officer, Zuellig Pharma. “This relocated depot will strengthen access to Japan within our regional network, helping us execute with greater reliability, compliance, and speed across the region.”

The Misato clinical depot will also provide a streamlined, turnkey solution for global sponsors seeking rapid and compliant market entry into Japan. Sponsors will benefit from the same rigorous operational excellence, regulatory adherence, and service consistency delivered by Zuellig Pharma’s strategic network of clinical depots, without the overhead of building or managing costly standalone facilities. This milestone supports Zuellig Pharma’s ongoing efforts to accelerate clinical development and improve patient access to innovative therapies across Asia Pacific.

With this strategic move, Zuellig Pharma further strengthens its position as a trusted partner for global clinical development, combining scale, expertise, and agility whilst delivering high-quality, compliant clinical logistics and sourcing solutions across Asia Pacific.

[1] https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/features/apac-clinical-trials-beyond-china

Hashtag: #ZuelligPharma #ClinicalTrials #ClinicalResearch #Healthcare #Pharmaceuticals #ColdChain #Logistics

https://www.zuelligpharma.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/zuellig-pharma

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Zuellig Pharma

Zuellig Pharma is a leading healthcare solutions company in Asia, and our purpose is to make healthcare more accessible to the communities we serve. We provide world-class distribution, commercialization, and clinical trial support services, underpinned by a strong culture of innovation to support the growing healthcare needs in this region. The company was founded a hundred years ago and has grown to become a multibillion-dollar business covering 18 markets with over 12,000 employees. Our people serve more than 200,000 medical facilities and work with over 450 clients, including the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Media OutReach

Contractor Confidence Rises Amid Strengthening Office Demand Across Asia Pacific

Published

7 hours ago

26/03/2026

Media Outreach

Contractor Sentiment Survey shows 70% of respondents expect improved market conditions in 2026
Office fit out costs diverge across the region with Japan and Taipei posting largest year-on-year increases while costs in Hong Kong held steady

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 26 March 2026 – Cushman & Wakefield’s Asia Pacific Office Fit Out Cost Guide 2026 highlights a clear shift in regional market dynamics, with sentiment strengthening and activity levels improving across several key markets. Contractor confidence has risen year-on-year, with 70% of the respondents to the firm’s annual Contractor Sentiment Survey anticipating improved conditions in 2026. This positive sentiment is further supported by the stronger‑than‑expected 92 million square feet of office absorption in 2025 and a tightening construction pipeline outside India.

Of the 180 survey respondents, nearly two thirds reported project backlogs of around six months, reflecting improving project delivery conditions across the region. While Japan and Indonesia remain outliers with longer backlogs, most markets expect stabilisation or slight improvement in delivery timelines in 2026. This alignment between contractor sentiment and strengthening occupier demand points to a more balanced and active project environment emerging across Asia Pacific.

Ranee Ng, Executive Director, Head of Project & Development Services, Hong Kong said: “As Hong Kong’s property market evolves, occupiers are seeking practical, scalable fit out strategies that deliver efficiency in high density environments. There is a clear shift toward flexible designs that can rapidly adapt to changing workforce behaviours and policy updates, while demand for sustainable materials, energy efficient construction and smart building technologies is accelerating innovation. These trends are creating a more resilient fit out ecosystem where disciplined cost management and value driven delivery allow clients to achieve compelling performance outcomes without sacrificing quality.”

Fit Out Cost Movements (YoY, 2025 → 2026)

The 2026 Guide reported a divergence in city level fit out costs (measured in USD per sq ft) across the region:

Costs rising: Japan and Taipei posted the largest year-on-year increases
(Tokyo: USD 215 vs USD 195; Taipei: USD 145 vs USD 110)
Costs easing: Mainland China and South Korea saw declines
(Shenzhen: USD 87 vs USD 94; Seoul: USD 130 vs USD 156)
Costs steady: Singapore (USD 140) and Hong Kong (USD 160) remained largely unchanged
Best value: India remains the region’s most cost competitive market, with most major cities ranging USD 65–73 per sq ft

These cost movements reflect evolving local construction dynamics and broader economic adjustments influencing material, labour and delivery markets across Asia Pacific.

APAC Office Market Dynamics

Even as office demand across APAC surged in 2025, Cushman & Wakefield also noted a substantial contraction in new office supply outside India. Development pipelines have moderated sharply due to rising construction costs and reduced project feasibility, intensifying competition for prime space. As supply tightens, vacancy rates in high quality buildings – particularly in core CBD locations – are expected to trend lower, reinforcing the ongoing flight to quality amongst occupiers.

Report author and Head of International Research, APAC & EMEA, Dr. Dominic Brown said: “After a resilient 2025, the Asia Pacific office market is now transitioning into a more stable phase, supported by a gradual return of business confidence. Coupled with the tightening supply pipeline outside India, which is reshaping the competitive landscape for high quality space, these collective shifts indicate a meaningful turning point for the region in 2026, with both occupiers and investors positioned for renewed momentum.”

Notes:

Data and pricing benchmarks in the guide reflect market conditions as of December 2025. For insights on the Middle East conflict, please refer to Cushman & Wakefield’s Middle East Conflict: Implications for Energy, Inflation, and CRE.
Cushman & Wakefield publishes Office Fit Out Cost Guides for APAC, EMEA and the Americas, which are all available [here].

Hashtag: #CushmanWakefield

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global commercial real estate services firm for occupiers and investors with approximately 53,000 employees in over 350 offices and nearly 60 countries. In Greater China, a network of 23 offices serves local markets across the region. In 2025, the firm reported revenue of $10.3 billion across its core services of Valuation, Consulting, Project & Development Services, Capital Markets, Project & Occupier Services, Industrial & Logistics, Retail, and others. Built around the belief that Better never settles, the firm receives numerous industry and business accolades for its award-winning culture. For additional information, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com.hk or follow us on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/cushman-&-wakefield-greater-china).

Media OutReach

Tintri and Platform9 Announce Joint Solution for containerized and hypervisor-based workloads.

Published

18 hours ago

25/03/2026

Media Outreach

New all-in-one platform to help businesses develop and deploy at scale with maximum ROI

CHATSWORTH, US – Media OutReach Newswire – 25 March 2026 – Tintri, the innovator in workload-aware, AI-powered data management, and Platform9, the leader in simplifying enterprise private clouds, today announced a strategic partnership to deliver a bundled AI-ready infrastructure solution that streamlines deployment and reduces operational costs. The out-of-the-box offering makes it simple for enterprises to stand up and scale modern AI systems without the complexity of traditional stacks.

The Problem: AI Is Getting Expensive

Running AI to process and analyze data in real time, requires moving enormous amounts of data at extremely high speeds. Existing infrastructure wasn’t built to manage the sheer volume and velocity of data required for on-demand inferencing and ongoing model training, ultimately causing slowdowns and driving up operational costs. Tintri and Platform9 directly addresses these critical bottlenecks in the by cutting the cost per AI transaction, as low as possible.

What’s in the New Platform

The new offering has two main parts:

1. A powerful data center component built on standard server hardware that can run multiple types of virtual machines and containerized applications side-by-side, without resource impacts. Tintri’s patented technology monitors each application individually, making sure the most critical ones always get the resources they need.

2. An edge AI component designed for capturing real-time data to continuously learn and update inference models.

A core component of the platform is Tintri VMstore, which uniquely runs multiple virtualization platforms and Kubernetes (the industry-standard system for managing containerized applications) all within the same platform. This is a significant differentiator: most competing solutions require separate infrastructure for each. Tintri’s patented technology observes each application individually and guarantees real-time resource delivery, even when the system is under heavy load. This eliminates the “noisy neighbor” problem, where resource-intensive applications steal resources and slow down everything else.

Why It Matters

Many companies today have AI running in multiple locations, either in a central data center, as well as out in the field on cameras, sensors, or other devices. Managing all of that separately is complex and expensive. This new platform unifies the entire setup under one management system (provided by Platform9), so IT teams spend less time juggling tools and more time moving their business forward.

Available now through Tintri’s global network of authorized partners, Phil Trickovic, Senior Vice President of Tintri said:“This launch represents a major milestone in our commitment to providing intelligent, autonomous infrastructure. We’re giving customers the exact tools they need to conquer the complexities of modern AI and edge computing, all while driving down operational costs.”

Hashtag: #Tintri #Platform9

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Tintri

Tintri delivers the industry’s only workload-aware, AI-powered data management platform, built specifically for virtualized and containerized workloads. Its VMstore platform autonomously manages data at the level of individual VMs, containers, and databases; providing per-workload automation, guaranteed QoS, and predictive analytics that eliminate routine tuning and troubleshooting. Recognized for this innovative approach, Tintri was named “Overall Data Storage Company of the Year” in the 2025 Data Breakthrough Awards. Learn more at tintri.com.

About Platform9

Platform9 is the leader in simplifying enterprise private clouds. The company’s flagship product, Private Cloud Director, has all of VMware’s enterprise-grade features today along with private cloud features for the future. Platform9 was founded by a team of VMware cloud pioneers and has over tens of thousands of nodes in production at some of the world’s largest enterprises. Platform9 is an inclusive, globally distributed company backed by prominent investors, committed to driving private cloud innovation and efficiency. For more information, go to: https://platform9.com/.