Tencent Cloud Drives AI Adoption to Cultivate the Greater Bay Area's Next Generation of Digital Talent

Through AI platform tools such as CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, Tencent Cloud is helping young people build their own "future teams", unlock their innovation potential, and seize opportunities in the AI era

HONG KONG, Aug. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Cloud, the cloud business under Tencent, highlighted at the 8th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Youth New Opportunities Forum, how artificial intelligence (AI) is helping cultivate a new generation of innovative talent, entrepreneurs and future leaders, supporting young people in seizing the Greater Bay Area's development advantages and exploring greater possibilities in the AI era.

Organized by the Institute of Accountants Exchange, the forum brought together leaders from government, business, academia and the professional sectors, together with young talent from across the Greater Bay Area, to explore future trends in the region, discuss directions for youth development, and work together to build a better future of innovation.

"AI is profoundly transforming how the next generation learns, creates and leads," said Freda Xu, Vice President of Marketing, Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group. "As AI agents and intelligent productivity tools mature, work that once required large teams or years of experience is becoming increasingly accessible. These tools free people from repetitive and time-consuming tasks so they can focus on higher-value work such as analysis, judgment and decision-making, while giving young people the opportunity to gain hands-on experience earlier in their careers. We believe AI is more than a tool for improving efficiency. It is also an important partner in driving innovation and nurturing future leaders. By harnessing AI technologies, young people can build their own 'future teams', unlock their creative potential, develop leadership and collaboration skills, and confidently embrace the new opportunities presented by the digital era."

AI Adoption Accelerates: From Individual Innovation to Organizational Empowerment

As AI moves from proof-of-concept to real-world application, AI-driven tools are breaking down traditional technical barriers at an unprecedented pace, freeing innovation from the constraints of professional background. Tencent Cloud's proprietary AI-assisted coding tool, CodeBuddy, is a case in point: originally built for engineers, it has since been adopted by more than 10,000 Tencent employees without a technical background, reflecting how AI is extending from professional coding into a far broader range of roles. This shift is significantly enhancing the practical capabilities of the younger generation. Even without deep programming expertise, young people can use AI to rapidly transform ideas into fully functional applications, helping them gain hands-on experience earlier in their careers, realize their innovative potential, and increasingly make AI an important partner in their personal and professional development.

Beyond coding, AI's impact on everyday office work is equally significant, helping talent move from individual efficiency gains to organization-wide value creation. Tencent Cloud's leading desktop AI agent, WorkBuddy, acts as a "digital colleague" — helping users handle time-consuming tasks such as research, data analysis and cross-platform operations, so they can focus on higher-value decision-making and significantly boost overall productivity.

This empowerment extends further to the organizational level. Through WorkBuddy, users can organize proven workflows and professional experience into dedicated 'Skills' and share them across a team. This not only improves team collaboration, but also turns individual professional know-how into a digital asset the organization can build on — helping companies retain institutional knowledge and pass on experience even as talent moves on.

This trend, where individual empowerment drives team-wide transformation, is also supported by market data. According to research firm Grand View Research, the global AI agent market is projected to grow from US$7.63 billion in 2025 to US$182.97 billion by 2033, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.6%. In China, adoption is expected to exceed 90% by 2030, underscoring how quickly the technology is being woven into business operations and everyday workflows, and positioning it as a key engine of industry innovation and productivity gains ahead.

Advancing AI Talent Development in the Greater Bay Area

Speaking at the forum, Xu described the opportunities available to Greater Bay Area youth today as an "exceptional set of advantages" for success. She noted that as global AI technology advances rapidly, young people in the Greater Bay Area also benefit from an internationally-connected legal and business environment, a globally-connected financial system, and a mature professional services ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific region — opening up greater room for growth.

She emphasized that amid the new landscape brought about by technological change, what truly matters is not the technology itself, but the ability to use it to create value. Capabilities such as international perspective, business acumen and strategic thinking, along with responsibility, collaboration and empathy, remain core strengths that AI cannot replace.

Meanwhile, Tencent Cloud continues to promote AI skills development among young talent across the Greater Bay Area through a diverse range of initiatives, including educational partnerships and developer programs, while encouraging young people to address social issues through technological innovation. This year, Tencent Cloud launched the Tencent Cloud Hackathon developer challenge series, featuring themes such as support for individuals with high-functioning autism, silver technology, and game creation. The competition encourages young people to leverage AI tools including CodeBuddy, WorkBuddy and Miora to express their creativity through games, animation and AI agents, while transforming innovative ideas into practical solutions with real-world impact.

The competition spans Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Macau SARs, as well as Southeast Asia, attracting more than 10,000 developers from around the world and generating over 1,000 innovative submissions. The strong participation highlights the younger generation's potential to harness AI to solve real-world challenges and drive innovation.

Among the participating regions, the Hong Kong and Macau Demo Day and judging event will be held on August 18 at Inno Space in Hong Kong. Winning teams from the Hong Kong and Macau region will advance to the Tencent Cloud Hackathon Global Grand Final, where they will exchange ideas and learn from fellow young innovators and technology talent from different regions, showcasing the Greater Bay Area's strengths in AI innovation and digital creativity.

As the Greater Bay Area continues to strengthen its position as a world-class innovation hub, Tencent Cloud will continue working with partners across education, the developer community, enterprises and society to help more young people seize opportunities in the AI era and make a greater impact on the global stage. At the same time, Tencent will continue investing in AI development and refining its AI ecosystem, leveraging core technologies such as the Tencent Hunyuan large model to provide developers and the next generation of innovative talent with more comprehensive models, platforms and infrastructure — jointly driving innovation and nurturing more outstanding talent.

About Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud is one of the world's fastest-growing cloud service providers, committed to delivering innovative solutions that address everyday life and business challenges, and empowering the digital transformation of smart industries. Tencent Cloud has always upheld its mission to meet the needs of every industry, leveraging cloud computing, Big Data analytics, AI, IoT and cybersecurity, together with its extensive global infrastructure, to provide businesses with stable, secure and industry-leading cloud products and services across a wide range of sectors, including education, finance, healthcare, gaming, media and entertainment, property, retail, travel and transportation.

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SOURCE Tencent Cloud