Lenovo Tech World ’26 Hong Kong, a bold showcase of AI innovation in Asia Pacific
In an era defined by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence across several industries, Lenovo showcased its efforts in the global deployment of AI at Lenovo Tech World ’26 Hong Kong. Held last March 10, the flagship event brought together Lenovo’s AI-powered projects in the real world.
Starting from the conceptual and fundamental application of AI, Lenovo has launched its AI-driven strategy across several industries from consumer to industrial applications with equal focus on the hardware and software that enable them. Through a series of keynotes, panel discussions, media roundtables, and experiential exhibits, Lenovo demonstrated its creativity with its Hybrid AI framework that includes Personal AI, Public AI, and Enterprise AI.
WELCOME AND OPENING KEY NOTES
In his welcome keynote, Ken Wong, Lenovo’s Vice President and President, Solution & Services Group, said AI has gone beyond being a search tool. Now it can think and act in real time.
“For businesses, this represents a new phase, where AI turns data into action, connecting the digital and physical worlds,” said Mr Wong.
“At Lenovo, this is how we bring AI to you: personal AI across devices and business AI across value chains. Together, we call this Hybrid AI.”
As a framework, Hybrid AI takes into account the current reality that people and organizations have different needs when using artificial intelligence. There is no one-size-fits-all use case. With Hybrid AI, Lenovo offers the choice of using a large language model (LLM), data, deployment, control and security controls.
Mr. Wong also gave an example of Lenovo’s commitment to AI innovation. The company has invested in more than 300 technology, robotics, and major language model startups. Ten of these companies are in Hong Kong.
As the guest of honor for the event, Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, delivered the opening keynote speech. In his speech, Mr. Chan cited a robot performance during the Spring Festival Gala in China as an example of the future of integrated intelligence. He added that robots and AI can be used to build a strong economy.
“The major economies are now realizing the importance of AI strategies,” said Mr. Chan.
“It is an unstoppable wave. We must accept it with confidence and care.”
As industry leaders were present at the event, Mr. Chan also emphasized Hong Kong’s role as an AI Hub linked to the Greater Bay Area’s cutting-edge research and manufacturing.
Just two weeks ago, the AI Plus and Industry Development Strategy Committee was formed to bring together academia, industry, and technology parks to integrate AI into critical sectors such as health technology and artificial intelligence.
Towards the end of his speech, Mr. Chan said, “Innovation thrives when government, academia, and industry collaborate. Lenovo’s deep AI expertise can strongly support Hong Kong’s ambitions.”
“This event is a living example of that ecosystem in action – bringing businesses, startups, and researchers together to apply AI to real-world challenges.”
After Mr. Chan’s speech, Mr. Wong returned to the stage again to briefly talk about Hybrid AI as a new standard. Personal AI can connect multiple devices such as phones, tablets and PCs into a seamless experience. He introduced Lenovo Qira as an example, a “Personal Ambient Intelligence” AI that can act as a double human AI.
SOME KEY NOTES
In the following keynote, Linda Yao, Lenovo’s Vice President and General Manager, Hybrid Cloud & the combination of AI Factory (infrastructure) and AI Library (proven solutions). As an example, he mentioned the Supply Chain Super agents that manage 2,700 components and the Football AI Pro created for FIFA that processes large amounts of data securely for use by analysts and coaches around the world.
Charles Ferland, Lenovo VP and GM, ISG ESMB Commercial Group, spoke about the company’s ThinkSystem and ThinkEdge line of AI-enabled hardware optimized for deployment of trained AI models.
Art Hu, Lenovo SVP and Global CIO discussed the company’s cooperation with FIFA on the technical side. He was joined on stage by Romy Gai, FIFA’s Chief Business Officer. One of their latest projects is the scanning of all players’ 3D data to create AI-powered 3D avatars and the latest version of Referee View which used AI-powered enhancement software to process first-person images taken from the referee’s camera.
Lenovo Asia Pacific president, Amar Babu launched Lenovo Quira, an AI personal agent that can be accessed on all Lenovo and Motorola devices such as phones, tablets, wearables and PCs. According to Mr. Babu, Qira can learn from user habits in line with Lenovo’s “One Personal AI, Multiple Devices” vision.
DIFFERENTIAL OPERATION PANEL
The keynotes were followed by a “Race for Enterprise AI” panel discussion moderated by David Rabin, Lenovo’s Chief Marketing Officer, Solutions and Services Group. Panelists include Kate Swanborg (SVP, Technology Communications and Strategic Alliances, DreamWorks Animation), Romy Gai (Chief Business Officer of FIFA), and Gordon Orr (Lenovo Board Member and former Chairman of McKinsey Asia.
Ms. Swanborg was asked where DreamWorks is in terms of AI readiness. According to him, they should have been careful for a few years “because artists and actors are very important to our business.”
He revealed that last year, they started a series of workshops with Lenovo’s AI Center of Excellence “to understand the specific areas where we produce that we can use AI.”
Mr. Gai said FIFA used AI to manage events, fan engagement, and broadcast complexity on a large scale.
In business, different companies have different levels of AI readiness. They needed to act quickly or be left behind. With Lenovo’s help, DreamWorks has struck a balance of having a good ROI by incorporating AI into their production pipeline while empowering their artists. – Ed G. Geronia Jr.
