HSBC plans to establish its AI & Emerging Technology Institute in Hong Kong with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as its first academic partner. The bank says the institute will develop technology for use across its businesses, bringing academic research together with teams that can apply technology in practice.
The institute is expected to begin operating in early 2027. HSBC intends to move it to the Northern Metropolis once it has identified a suitable location.
Its initial priorities are staff skills development, AI security and fraud detection, post-quantum cryptography and blockchain.
Chief executive Georges Elhedery described the institute as part of HSBC’s wider AI strategy, which aims to improve efficiency across a workforce of roughly 200,000 people worldwide, including about 28,000 in Hong Kong. He said the bank’s first task was to bring staff along as AI changes work, with some jobs changing or disappearing and new ones emerging.
HSBC is already testing how clients’ AI agents could interact with the bank’s own agents to handle basic tasks, Elhedery said. He added that security remains a major workstream, including efforts to identify vulnerabilities and build more resilient systems.