Zoho Corporation has highlighted its growing commitment to Hong Kong with the launch of new AI-powered solutions at its annual user conference, Zoholics, held on 25 August at the Kowloon Shangri-La. The company unveiled Zia LLM, its proprietary large language model, introduced Zia Hubs, and showcased enhancements to its CRM for Everyone platform, underscoring its strategy to deliver accessible, integrated, and privacy-focused technology for enterprises.
Expanding role of SaaS in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) market is expected to expand from US$1.32 billion in 2025 to US$3.24 billion by 2030, according to Statista. This projected growth, at a compound annual rate of 19.72%, is driven by factors such as remote working, digital transformation, and wider adoption of cloud technology. High internet penetration and demand for flexible solutions are also supporting the market’s momentum. By 2030, the adoption of AI-powered tools could deliver up to US$36.7 billion in economic benefits for local businesses.
Zoho reported 16% year-on-year revenue growth in 2024 across its productivity and customer experience solutions portfolio in Hong Kong. The company attributed this to increasing demand for its integrated enterprise-grade tools that help businesses improve collaboration, streamline workflows, and scale operations efficiently.
Launch of Zia LLM and Zia Hubs
At Zoholics, Zoho introduced Zia LLM, its in-house large language model built on NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform. The model comes in three configurations, with 1.3 billion, 2.6 billion, and 7 billion parameters, designed to handle different use cases such as data extraction, summarisation, retrieval-augmented generation, and code generation. The models are optimised to balance performance with resource efficiency, while maintaining Zoho’s commitment to privacy. Customer data is kept on Zoho servers, avoiding the need to share it with external cloud providers.
In addition, Zoho presented Zia Hubs, a solution within its WorkDrive platform, which enables businesses to organise and manage unstructured content such as documents, videos, audio, and PDFs. Zia Hubs integrates this content across Zoho’s applications and AI services, offering features such as intelligent search, agentic AI, and advanced analysis while giving users control over accessibility and privacy.
Enhancements to CRM for Everyone
Zoho’s CRM for Everyone platform has been upgraded with deeper AI and workflow orchestration capabilities powered by Zia. The updates include Ask Zia for automated report creation, custom module building without coding, workflow generation using plain text prompts, and an Image to Canvas feature that turns images into interactive design elements. Other enhancements include Connected Records and Connected Workflows, which link processes across departments to ensure smoother customer journeys.
Commenting on the developments, Gibu Mathew, Vice President and General Manager of Zoho APAC, said: “Our mission in Hong Kong is to empower every business, from startups to large enterprises, with accessible, integrated, and AI-driven technology. Leveraging AI within our fully owned ecosystem, we’re introducing tools that drive efficiency, smarter decision-making, and faster growth.”
Commitment to AI with privacy at its core
Zoho emphasised that its AI strategy is guided by principles of customer value and data protection. Its models are not trained on consumer data and do not retain user information, with development focused on delivering practical, cost-efficient tools for businesses. Zia LLM will be rolled out across Zoho’s data centres in the US, India, and Europe, with customer availability expected in the coming months. Zia Hubs will launch later this quarter, while the updated CRM for Everyone is already available in Hong Kong.
