Hong Kong is set to make history as the city prepares to unveil its first-ever convenience store run entirely by a humanoid robot — and the city’s Finance Minister says this is only the beginning.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po made the revelation on Sunday through his weekly blog, disclosing that the groundbreaking 24-hour store, which sits on the waterfront in Hung Hom, will be operated by a robot capable of attending to both locals and foreign visitors in multiple languages.
The store, it was gathered, is the brainchild of a mainland Chinese company specialising in embodied AI — a technology that fuses artificial intelligence into physical systems such as robots and self-driving vehicles, enabling them to perceive their surroundings, make real-time decisions, and interact with the physical world.
Hong Kong will be the company’s first expansion point outside mainland China — a development Chan described as a strong vote of confidence in the city’s global reputation.
“According to the firm, Hong Kong was chosen as the first stop for the retail store’s expansion outside the mainland because of the city’s international showcase platform, its openness to testing new technologies and the visibility it offers to innovation and technology projects,” the finance chief stated.
Chan further noted that the country’s dominance across emerging industries, combined with Hong Kong’s status as a top-tier global fundraising hub, had made the city irresistible to start-ups and technology firms eyeing international expansion.
And if that was not enough, Chan also announced the formation of the Committee on AI+ and Industry Development Strategy — a high-level government body stacked with AI experts, academics, and industry heavyweights — which is billed to hold its inaugural meeting this month.
The committee will focus on AI applications in life and health sciences, embodied AI, and strategies for deploying the technology across different sectors of society.
Speaking on the government’s broader ambitions, Chan declared: “While we vigorously promote AI development to empower industries and enhance economic competitiveness, we also hope to bring convenience that residents can genuinely feel and to create new highlights for development.”
To ensure ordinary Hongkongers are not left behind in the AI revolution, the government has rolled out its “AI Training for All” initiative, setting aside a whopping HK$50 million for AI-focused courses, seminars, and competitions. The fund is designed to sponsor over 200 events targeting at least 50,000 participants within two years.
Courses, it was learnt, will be tailored to suit different demographics. For the younger generation, Chan said training would lean heavily on practical, hands-on experience. But perhaps more touching was his message concerning the elderly.
“To help elderly people gain a basic understanding of AI tools, apply them more effectively and avoid deception, we will first provide training to community members and students, enabling them to serve as ambassadors who assist the elderly in learning AI, thereby promoting intergenerational inclusion and building a more caring community,” he said.
On the infrastructure front, Chan disclosed that Hong Kong’s computing power had already hit 5,000 petaflops — and is projected to skyrocket to 180,000 petaflops by 2032, thanks to the planned Sandy Ridge Data Facility Cluster in the Northern Metropolis development zone near the mainland border.
For context, one petaflop equals a quadrillion computer operations per second — figures that underscore just how seriously Hong Kong is taking its AI future.