▲ AI PRISM* Personalized Economic Briefing
* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and delivers six news items tailored to each reader type.
[Key Issue Briefing]
■ Manufacturing AI commercialization: An era has begun in earnest in which artificial intelligence detects fire and worker-collision risks at manufacturing sites in advance and analyzes early warning signs of production equipment failure. With 48 projects selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' program to fast-track the commercialization of AI application products in manufacturing, the scope of adoption is widening rapidly from accident prevention to process optimization.
■ Semiconductor talent locking: As major chipmakers including Samsung Electronics (005930) and SK hynix (000660) posted strong earnings, job mobility across the industry contracted sharply. Expanded performance bonuses have encouraged more workers to stay put, while hiring demand at companies has instead increased, deepening recruitment difficulties.
■ Steel complex AX: A project to apply AI at the Pohang Steel Industrial Complex, the country's leading steel production base in North Gyeongsang Province, has been launched. Fifteen institutions, including companies and universities, are taking part in a structure designed to raise process efficiency while jointly supporting AI adoption at small and mid-sized firms that lack investment capacity.
[News of Interest to Startup Founders]
- Key summary: Mid-sized and small Korean companies across a range of industries, from automotive-parts forging to food and publishing, are accelerating the commercialization of AI solutions built on manufacturing-site data. They were selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' program to fast-track the commercialization of AI application products in manufacturing, known as AX Sprint, with 124.2 billion won allocated to a total of 48 projects. The government is not supplying AI vendors' solutions to manufacturing sites in one direction. Instead, it has adopted a structure in which technologies are selected based on manufacturers' process data and operating experience, and their effects are verified in actual production environments. Hanho Industrial, a forging company, will develop an integrated safety management solution combining vision AI with Internet of Things sensors, while food company Daesang will develop technology to introduce AI agents into allulose fermentation and sugar-refining processes.
2. "Why Move in a Boom?" Semiconductor Job Changes Halved
- Key summary: The number of people changing jobs in the semiconductor industry in the first half of this year fell about 50% from a year earlier, sharply curbing labor mobility. According to an analysis by Remember & Company, the figure is about one-third of the level seen in the first half of 2023, a result of a "talent locking" effect in which employees, amid improving industry conditions, value their current compensation more highly than the expected gains from switching jobs. By contrast, data compiled by JobKorea showed that job postings for entry-level positions in the semiconductor sector jumped 47% in the first half of this year from the same period last year. Remember's headhunting request data also showed that 83.6% of positions left unfilled last year were requested again this year. Kim Sung-hee, a professor at Korea University's Graduate School of Labor Studies, said small and mid-sized companies need to improve their compensation systems and devise measures to attract talent in order to narrow the gap with large corporations in competing for workers.
3. AI Comes to Pohang Steel Complex as 15 Companies and Universities Join Forces
- Key summary: The Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) held a kickoff meeting for the Pohang Smart Green AI Transformation (AX) Testbed Industrial Complex project and began carrying it out. The move follows the selection of the Pohang Steel Industrial Complex in a competitive call by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, with a total of 23.5 billion won in state and local funds to be invested over four years from this year through 2029. Fifteen institutions are taking part, including steelmakers such as Dongkuk Steel (460860) and Jeil Technos, universities such as POSTECH and Seoul National University, and AI and information technology specialists such as Konan Technology and Codevision. During the project period, an AX comprehensive support center to help small and mid-sized companies with AI transformation and a convergence-type testbed linking virtual space with actual production sites are to be established.
[Reference News for Startup Founders]
4. Bain, Set to Spin Off Andar, Injects 64 Billion Won Into Eco Marketing (230360) [Signal]
- Key summary: Global private equity firm Bain Capital will invest 64 billion won just before separating athleisure brand Andar from Eco Marketing. Eco Marketing resolved to carry out a rights offering issuing 4 million common shares at 16,000 won each, with all of the proceeds to be used to repay debt. Late last month, Eco Marketing approved a spin-off that will carve out stakes in subsidiaries including Andar into a newly established entity, Andar Holdings. Assets of 231.1 billion won will be transferred to the new entity, while all of the 292.6 billion won in liabilities will remain with the surviving entity. Once the two companies are separated, Andar can also be invested in on its own, which observers say will make it considerably easier for Bain Capital to recover its investment or attract additional funding.
5. Toyota to Convert All Models to 'Software-Defined Vehicles' by 2030
- Key summary: Japan's Toyota Motor will install its proprietary software, Arene, in all of its models by 2030, converting about 50 models into software-defined vehicles (SDVs), the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 17th. An SDV is a vehicle whose functions can be upgraded through software updates, like a smartphone, and the plan covers the 10 million new vehicles shipped annually. Arene will be extended to partner automakers in 2035 and subsequently to communication devices in robots and infrastructure equipment such as homes and utility poles. Toyota is building up its "value chain business" that comes after new-car sales, including safe-driving support systems, function updates and sales of replacement parts. It plans to raise operating profit in this segment to 3 trillion yen (about 25.4 trillion won) by fiscal 2030, 40% more than at present.
6. Chey Tae-won: "If I Were in My 20s Again, I Would Definitely Start a Company; Do What AI Cannot"
- Key summary: SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won appeared on season 6 of EBS's "Great Minds" and said, "If I could go back to my 20s, I would definitely start a company." Chey said he would take on the hardest problems facing humanity, such as water shortages, carbon emissions and food shortages, rather than starting a company in a field like semiconductors. He also advised young people, "Solve the small problems within your reach first, and as those experiences accumulate, you can build bigger and bigger solutions." Saying that "leaders in the AI era must do what AI cannot," he presented four capabilities young people should develop: the power to think, empathy, adaptive muscle and body skills. Separately, he proposed economic cooperation between Korea and Japan as a solution for sustainable growth, projecting that "if Korea and Japan develop into an economic community, they could form a market worth about $6 trillion."
