Hong Kong shoppers resist AI payments despite 74% adoption

Nearly one in two shoppers remain hesitant to let AI complete purchases after approval.

Hong Kong consumers are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) for shopping, but many remain unwilling to let AI complete purchases, according to the 2026 Adyen APAC Retail Index.

The survey found that 74% of consumers have used AI assistants to support their shopping experience.

Amongst those users, 88% said AI helps cut through online noise, 73% said it provides faster shopping inspiration, and 71% said they want to use AI to discover unique brands and experiences.

“However, the findings reveal that a trust gap exists. Forty five percent of consumers are uncomfortable allowing an AI assistant to complete a purchase on their behalf, even if they have reviewed and approved the product and price,” the report said.

A further 14% said they would only use AI for product discovery and not for payments, whilst another 14% said they would only allow AI to complete purchases if additional security checks were in place.

The findings indicate that despite growing use of AI-assisted shopping, trust at checkout remains a barrier as retailers move towards agentic commerce, where AI agents browse, decide, and purchase on a shopper's behalf.

The report also found that payment performance influences consumer confidence in retailers. Some 66% of respondents said payment errors damage their perception of a retailer, whilst 26% said they would abandon a purchase and avoid the retailer after encountering a payment issue.

Consumers also placed greater importance on payment security than speed, with two in five respondents saying they feel more confident when retailers require two-factor authentication at checkout, but only 9% said they would trade security for a faster checkout process.

“Consumers already consider payments as part of the wider brand experience, meaning that if checkout fails, trust breaks,” said Kai Tang, Head of Hong Kong at Adyen.

On the merchant side, 94% of surveyed enterprise retailers said they are familiar with agentic commerce, and 52% said they plan to integrate AI-driven or agentic commerce solutions into their 2026 revenue growth plans.

Retailers identified several challenges to adopting the technology, with 43% citing the risk of losing direct customer relationships or brand control, 38% pointing to data privacy and security concerns, and 35% identifying the difficulty of integrating AI into existing systems.

The report said enterprise retailers face growing integration demands as AI platforms use different protocols, product data formats, and checkout processes, requiring separate integrations for each platform.

“As agentic commerce moves closer to reality, the next challenge is making sure the retail backend systems can keep up whilst maintaining trust at every transaction,” Tang said.

The report said retailers will need to strengthen payment security, protect customer data, and provide seamless experiences across online and physical channels as AI-assisted shopping expands.