Fresh Hong Kong graduates are increasingly feeling the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) as they enter the workforce, human resources experts have said, after a survey found the starting salaries for degree holders and sub-degree graduates had narrowed.

The results of the latest annual survey by Baptist University found the disparity between the starting salaries of bachelor’s degree and sub-degree graduates narrowed by 17 per cent, or HK$500 (US$63.70), from HK$3,000 last year to HK$2,500 this year compared with 2025.

The experts urged the government to adjust its education strategies by taking into consideration the effects of AI on the job market while also encouraging students not to treat the technology as a threat.

“AI may be one reason behind the narrowing salary gap between degree levels, as some companies are unwilling to pay more for people with higher degrees when AI can help employees handle the same work,” Alexa Chow Yee-ping, managing director of human resources consultancy ACTS Consulting, said.

The survey covered more than 270,000 employees at 78 companies in Hong Kong, 38 in Macau and 105 in nine Guangdong province cities, which together form the Greater Bay Area.

It also found Hong Kong workers received smaller pay rises this year, at 2.3 per cent compared with 2.5 per cent in 2025, while the starting salaries of university graduates showed no clear upward trend.

“We expected the results from this period to look better as it covers most of this year’s pay adjustments in January, April and July,” Chow said. “And in the first half of last year, Hong Kong’s performance in GDP growth was relatively strong.”Hong Kong raised its full-year growth forecast for 2026 to between 3.5 and 4.5 per cent from between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent previously after better-than-expected performance in the first half of this year.

Chow explained that while the survey found the starting salaries for bachelor’s degree and sub-degree graduates had drawn closer, the situation varied by sector.

“In professional sectors such as healthcare and technology, where demand remains, the threshold will not easily be lowered,” she said.

Chow advised students to weigh their interests with practical considerations, in particular, whether the jobs they were considering were likely to be done by AI.

Labour sector lawmaker Lam Chun-sing, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions, said the government should adjust its education policies in light of the shift.

“Hong Kong now has universities of applied sciences. I hope more can be scaled up to train young people for AI-related industries or emerging sectors, so that they can work in the emerging industries in the Northern Metropolis in the future and reduce human resources mismatch,” he said.

The Northern Metropolis project, announced in 2021, aims to turn 30,000 hectares (74,132 acres) of land into an engine for economic growth and a housing hub.

A separate survey by the non-government Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, released in September, found that local employees received an average pay rise of 2.8 per cent this year.

After inflation, the real increase was 1.1 per cent, the lowest since the Covid-19 pandemic that roiled the city from 2020 to 2023.

Institute president Ian Choy Jing-man said fresh graduates were likely to feel the impact of slower pay growth most acutely.

“Fresh graduates mostly start at the general or supporting staff level, so their salary increments are likely to be on par with that group, which is growing more slowly than some of the other categories we surveyed,” he said.

Choy urged young people to treat AI as a tool rather than a threat. “Learn how to collaborate with it. It’s not your competition. And it’s definitely not stopping you from getting into the job market,” he said.

“But if you are equipped with the necessary AI skills, then you will come out on top of the competition.”