The government will award small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners who have achieved excellent business results, such as productivity improvement and sales increase, by implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Through this, it plans to spread the AI transformation of SMEs and small business owners.
The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups announced on the 27th that it will recruit SMEs and small business owners to participate in the '2025 Excellent Case Contest for SME AI Transformation' starting from the 28th.
Corporations wishing to participate can submit the application form, self-diagnosis of eligibility, excellent cases, pledge, and supporting documents via email to the local office's responsible person from any of the 13 local Small and Medium Enterprise offices by September 18.
The preliminary screening will be conducted from September 19 to 30. The local offices will evaluate the completeness, innovation, implementation results, scalability, and sustainability of the excellent cases through document review. Among them, three corporations will be recommended for the finals from the first-level local offices in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Daegu and Gyeongbuk, Gwangju and Jeonnam, and Busan, while two corporations will be recommended from the second-level local offices in Incheon, Daejeon and Sejong, Gangwon, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Jeonbuk, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam.
The final screening will select one target, three grand prize winners, and six excellent awardees through presentation evaluations. The award ceremony is scheduled to be held in November.
Recognized corporations will receive the Minister's award and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) Chairman's award, as well as additional points when participating in the Ministry's technology development (R&D) support project, and will be included in the excellent case book.
Minister Han Seong-suk said, 'Through this AI transformation excellent case contest, many SMEs and small business owners are expected to improve their awareness of AI adoption through benchmarking against excellent cases and to see visible results such as productivity improvement and increased sales through AI adoption.'