The restructuring of key industries around artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly advancing, yet its practical application in companies remains low. This highlights the need for collaboration between the government and companies to create an AI industrial ecosystem. According to a report titled “Changes in Korea’s Key Export Industries Driven by the AI Era” by the Korea International Trade Association’s International Trade Research Institute, 78.0% of respondents believe that AI implementation is necessary to improve efficiency. The survey was conducted with employees from 396 companies in the trade sector.
Only 16.9% of the respondents reported actively using AI to enhance productivity or perform tasks proactively, while the remaining 68.7% were either using AI in a limited capacity or considering its adoption. In terms of AI use, companies mainly utilized it in idea-related tasks like marketing and branding (21.9%) as well as product and service planning and development (19.7%), but its use in core areas such as production, manufacturing, and finance was below 10%. The main challenges in adopting AI were cited as cost burden (26.1%) and a lack of skilled professionals (25.4%).
The report noted that although Korea has strong manufacturing competitiveness with vast data, the lack of infrastructure to leverage this data for industrial AI is a limiting factor. It argued for the need for governmental phased support and proactive corporate responses to establish an industrial AI ecosystem. Kang Sung-eun, a senior researcher at the Korea Trade Association, stated that AI is fundamentally altering the competitive landscape of export industries. He emphasized that public and private collaboration is crucial, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, to effectively incorporate industrial AI based on manufacturing data, ultimately leading towards building and operating independent AI systems, or sovereign AI.