Numerous artificial-intelligence products have been launched across regions lately. People interact with AI on their phones in varying degrees, reflecting that AI is becoming prevalent in daily life and work. Indeed, AI is reshaping the global technological and economic landscape at an unprecedented pace. There are reports that many companies anticipate cutting down on junior-level recruitment over the next three years because they are bringing in AI technology. Today, sectors cannot ignore the use of AI in their work, lest they are left behind.
Facing this historic change and opportunity, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has proactively stepped in and released the “Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint”, with the aim of fostering the robust and safe development of AI, while proposing the establishment of the AI Efficacy Enhancement Team and the Committee on AI+ and Industry Development Strategy. The Department of Justice (DoJ) has also spearheaded the establishment of an Inter-Departmental Working Group to Review Legislation to Support Wider Application of AI. In addition, the DoJ will shortly test “LexiHK”, a legal-specific tool developed by the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Center. This marks a forward-looking attempt by the government to take the lead in introducing AI into legal practice.
Within legal professional bodies, in its proposal for the city’s first five-year plan submitted to the government early this year, the Law Society of Hong Kong has also explicitly stated that it will keep a close watch over legal- and copyright-related challenges brought about by AI technologies, reflecting the sector’s awareness of and proactive response to digital-intelligent transformation.
As the nation embarks on the first year of the national 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the SAR’s legal profession, being a traditional advantageous industry, must promptly execute a digital and intelligent upgrade so as to capture the following strategic opportunities:
Enhancing competitiveness to support mainland industries going global. A primary application of AI to the legal industries lies in deploying vertical large language models to assist practitioners with case retrieval, contract review, statutes comparison, and document drafting — thereby delivering quantum leaps in the efficiency and quality of legal services. For small and medium-sized law firms, which represent the vast majority of the legal sector in Hong Kong, adopting AI is crucial for them to remain competitive.
Sun Dong, secretary for innovation, technology and industry, once said that the government supports developing industry-specific vertical models, but such initiatives should be driven by the industry sector while the government would provide computing power and funding. Given that Hong Kong’s legal market consists predominantly of SMEs, relying solely on private-sector initiatives to build proprietary vertical models is not entirely feasible. To catalyze AI adoption in the legal sector, the HKSAR government should introduce targeted policy measures — such as establishing dedicated innovation funds, building shared digital infrastructure, and facilitating a legal-vertical model tailored for contract review, precedent retrieval, and regulatory analysis for the legal profession.
In addition, Hong Kong is also duty-bound to assist mainland enterprises aiming to “go global”. For instance, the outbound service platform under the HKSAR government’s GoGlobal Task Force and the DoJ’s Hong Kong Professional Services GoGlobal Platform could be upgraded via the induction of AI and consolidated into a unified, one-stop portal. Equipped with AI-powered matching capabilities, this platform could deliver end-to-end support for mainland enterprises — spanning cross-border corporate structuring and compliance audits to dispute resolution services.
Setting up an official online dispute resolution platform for Hong Kong. In the fourth quarter of this year, the Hong Kong Judiciary will mandate the use of the Integrated Court Case Management System (iCMS) for legal representatives in some of the civil court litigation cases. The iCMS is essentially an electronic court administrative portal whose functions at present center on the handling of court-related documents and payments electronically across various court levels. This is fundamentally different from an online dispute resolution (ODR) system equipped with full-fledged dispute-resolution capabilities: The former represents “process digitization”, whereas the latter constitutes an integrated platform combining “procedural online-empowerment” and “intelligent dispute resolution”. This gap precisely underscores the structural bottlenecks in Hong Kong’s ODR development trajectory.
As Hong Kong advances its status as an international legal and dispute resolution hub, having a digitally intelligent ODR platform is essential. ODR platforms enable parties to execute case filings, document exchanges, negotiations, mediation, arbitration, litigation, and the service of orders, awards and judgment entirely online. This drastically reduces dispute resolution costs and turnaround times while transcending geographical boundaries.
Currently, the eBRAM International Online Dispute Resolution Centre (eBRAM) is the only primary ODR service provider in Hong Kong, supported policywise by the DoJ. However, as a nongovernmental initiative, it mainly handles privately referred civil and commercial cases, operating in a largely reactive capacity.
Comparative common law jurisdictions offer clear precedents. Singapore’s judiciary developed the Community Justice and Tribunals System, handling small claims and employment disputes via online negotiation and mediation services. The UK Judiciary introduced Online Civil Money Claims in 2018, processing over 472,000 claims by April 2025. Similarly, data from the American Bar Association show that at least 12 of the 50 US states now operate 66 court-annexed ODR platforms.
To keep pace with these developments, it is necessary for the HKSAR and the Judiciary to consider launching an official ODR platform equipped with digital and intelligent capabilities, thereby establishing an end-to-end online dispute-resolution platform that integrates mediation and litigation into a one-stop dispute resolution mechanism. This would further consolidate Hong Kong’s position as a one-stop dispute resolution center for “mediation first, arbitration next” and “mediation first, litigation next” models.
Ultimately, Hong Kong must accelerate AI deployment across its legal ecosystem to consolidate its position as an international center for legal and dispute-resolution services during the 15th Five-Year Plan period and beyond.
The author is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
