How Hong Kong firms are future-proofing business in challenging times

Hong Kong’s economic transformation is at a critical juncture, and the private sector must adapt along with it, as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has noted. In the first of a two-part series, Ambrose Li and Wynna Wong examine the forces driving change among established enterprises.

Before visiting a vendor in mainland China’s Jiangsu province, a salesman from Hong Kong bottling giant Swire Coca-Cola can now use a mobile phone to see which drinks customers in the neighbourhood are most likely to buy.

The recommendations, generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and based on factors such as the area’s consumer profiles, turn information held across the firm’s operations into what Swire Coca-Cola calls “suggested orders”.

Swire Coca-Cola’s mainland plants are also using AI-powered robots that can make decisions and adapt to changing operating conditions as they pick and sort heavy, shrink-wrapped loads of drinks from pallets at high speed – a breakthrough in the labour-intensive industry.