Lawmaker William Wong on Wednesday said he hopes a new unit that is set to boost the efficiency of the government's work will help reduce bureaucratic inefficiencies, especially in cross-bureau activities.

Announced by Chief Executive John Lee in his fourth Policy Address, the "AI Efficacy Enhancement Team" is to be headed by the deputy chief secretary, with a deputy leader from the private sector.

Wong, who also leads the Centre for Innovation and Technology at Chinese University, said he is "over the moon" that this year's policy blueprint addresses a lot of the issues he brought to the CE's attention, particularly promoting the use of AI.

“When it involved cross-bureaus in the conventional way, you would involve a lot of paperwork. Now with artificial intelligence, then you can digitise the whole process, and you can improve the workflow,” he said.

"One of the sort of future project that we're working on, the low altitude economy, there will be a lot cross-bureaus activities. And then if you really want it to go fast, you have to clear kind of the hurdle or the gap between the different bureaus."

Many departments are in desperate need of technological reforms, Wong added.

“Medical, for example. If there's a patient applying to go into the hospital, and then that person has to get a lot of consultation from different departments. Well then you can speed that process up,” he said.

The number of members the AI efficacy team will have has not been disclosed, but Wong stressed that there is no need to get too many people involved.

“You don't need too many, because it's all about working out the policy,” he said.

“You just want to have ideas from different people. You need this deputy chair from the industry. And then perhaps you need an academic who knows the technical part of it.”

Wong said it would be better to involve more representatives from the private sector, as they are the ones who know about the industry's operation.

The CUHK engineering professor also welcomed news that a comprehensive blueprint for digital education in primary and secondary schools will be formulated.

“I promoted AI for many years. And I think that this is the key for Hong Kong. And when we do that, we don't do it just at the university. We really wanted to do it right at the beginning, like in the secondary level, or even in kindergarten,” he said.

The Federation of Education Workers also said it will be good to set out a policy to provide guidance and promote the use of AI in schools.

The group also endorsed the idea of enhancing AI training for teachers and proposed that schools with successful experience in AI implementation could share their best practices with others, to narrow inter-school disparities.