PolyU Foundation hosts luncheon talk exploring how AI revolutionises business innovations

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) Foundation hosted a luncheon talk in the PolyImpact Luncheon Series on 8 May 2025, titled “DeepSeek and Beyond: How Generative AI (GenAI) Can Revolutionise Your Business”. Delivering the keynote address, a leading AI expert from PolyU examined the role of AI in today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape and how it will refine strategies for business innovation. The event drew approximately 90 guests, including PolyU Foundation members, government officials and industry leaders.

Prof. Jin-Guang TENG, PolyU President, introduced the newly established Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences and PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence (PAAI). He highlighted how these initiatives will foster collaboration among internal and external stakeholders to advance the development of GenAI through interdisciplinary and multidimensional approaches. Prof. Teng also noted that PolyU had recently recruited several globally renowned experts in AI and data science, and had plans to expand its talent pool by attracting further leading scholars in related fields, reinforcing its pioneering position for cutting-edge AI.

The keynote was delivered by Prof. YANG Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU PAAI, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and Professor of the Department of Computing. Her talk, titled “How GenAI Empowers Enterprises”, traced the evolutionary trajectory of AI, analysed breakthroughs and challenges in AI-powered search engines, and explored how GenAI enhances competitiveness across various industries.

With 15 years of experience in AI, Prof. Yang has developed algorithmic systems that have been widely adopted by leading enterprises. She emphasised that GenAI offers transformative opportunities across the healthcare, finance, manufacturing, retail, media and fashion industries, with applications spanning medical image analysis, fraud detection, predictive maintenance, inventory management, content creation, design and marketing. However, challenges such as limited internet data accessibility and the high costs of open-source models hinder AI advancement. To address some of these barriers, Prof. Yang’s team developed the decentralised Co-GenAI platform. It features domain-adaptive continual pretraining, enabling AI models to become more specialised through learning data from specific domain data. It enables enterprises to obtain their own models, and demonstrates superior performance compared to open-source models. In addition, the system comprises a “Model Fusion” over existing specialised models that significantly reduces centralised computing resource usage. By optimising computational efficiency through small-model fusion, it reduces reliance on the high-end GPU clusters traditionally required for foundation model training.

Prof. Yang pointed out that AI-driven medicine and healthcare is poised to achieve significant breakthroughs in disease diagnosis and treatment, particularly in precision medicine for cancer. Her team has developed AI-powered medical models that assist in tumour diagnosis and enhancement of personalised treatment plans. The team is currently collaborating with Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre and Peking Union Medical College Hospital to strengthen clinical validation. In addition, the newly established PAAI will serve as a decentralised Co-GenAI platform, fostering collaborative research and applications of GenAI across diverse fields including urban energy, business transformation, smart manufacturing, robotics, intelligent clinical reasoning, grid modernisation, smart construction and smart materials.

The panel discussion, chaired by Dr Sunny CHAI, Chairman of the PolyU Foundation, and Prof. Yang, explored Hong Kong’s unique strengths and essential conditions for fostering a robust AI ecosystem. Prof. Yang emphasised that Hong Kong’s five globally top 100 ranked universities, combined with extensive research capabilities and an abundance of AI talent, provide a formidable foundation for advancing AI development. She urged that the City should harness the talent pool, invest in ample, cutting-edge AI infrastructure, and prioritise AI integration into industries where Hong Kong holds competitive advantages. By focusing resources and expertise on strategic priorities, she asserted that Hong Kong could accelerate the widespread adoption of AI across diverse sectors.

During the Q&A session, Prof. Yang addressed questions from guests on various topics.  These included the importance of AI in driving business development, strategies for building efficient AI models within enterprises, and the applications and potential challenges of AI in healthcare and philanthropy.

The PolyImpact Luncheon Series provides a platform for exchanging ideas and gaining professional insights, equipping participants with the knowledge needed to navigate the future of AI-driven business innovation. This event highlighted the importance of collaboration between academia, industry and government in fostering AI development and application.

The PolyU Foundation is a committee under the PolyU Council, supporting the University’s mission through fundraising, fostering partnerships and promoting educational initiatives. The Foundation plays a crucial role in enhancing the University’s capabilities in research, innovation and community engagement by securing resources and building networks with alumni, industry leaders and other stakeholders. The Foundation is committed to promoting the University’s contributions to education and research, as well as its impact on society, by organising events such as luncheons and talks that facilitate knowledge exchange and strengthen ties between the University and the broader community.

For more information about PolyU Foundation, please visit the website.

***END***