Building an AI chatbot for a Hong Kong business: what to check before you choose a partner

What kind of chatbot do you need?

• A chatbot that answers questions from your own information, such as product details, policies and your website. Many companies start here.
• A chatbot that also does things, such as booking appointments or changing account details. It has to connect to your systems, so it needs more testing and more security review.

Five questions to ask a partner

1. Where do the answers come from? Ask how the chatbot is kept to your own documents and website, what it says when it cannot find an answer, and how it handles questions outside its subject.

2. Does it work in our customers' languages? Test it in English and Chinese, and with questions written the way people in Hong Kong type, often Cantonese mixed with English.

3. How will you test it before launch? Ask for a set of test questions written with your team, and ask how problems found in testing are recorded and fixed.

4. Where is customer data stored, and who can see it? If customers type in personal details, Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance is likely to apply, so involve your compliance team early.

5. Who looks after it once it is live? The AI models behind chatbots are updated and retired over time. Ask who moves the chatbot to a newer model and checks the answers again.

Example: a Hong Kong finance company

• What ThinkCol built: a customer service chatbot for one of the company's credit cards, answering from the company's documents and website content.
• Languages: replies in English, Chinese (traditional and simplified) and written Cantonese.
• Testing: the company's team tested it before launch, and the issues they raised were logged and tracked.
• After launch: ThinkCol has provided annual maintenance. In 2026 it moved the chatbot to a newer AI model and checked the answers to its 706 test questions again.

Frequently asked questions

Will the chatbot make up answers?
It can. Good design makes this less likely, but no chatbot can be guaranteed never to guess. Ask how answers are kept to your own sources and what the chatbot says when it has no answer. The finance company's chatbot was set up to say it did not have the relevant information rather than guess.

Can it handle Cantonese?
It can, but quality varies between systems. Test it with real customer questions, including Cantonese mixed with English, before you sign off.

What is a good first step?
Start with one product or one set of common questions. Collect real customer questions and agree the right answers with your team before the build starts.

---

Planning a chatbot for your customers? Talk to our team.