Vice President Cha Ji-won of SK AX said on the 26th, "If you use artificial intelligence (AI), you can now do things on small and midsize manufacturing floors that you couldn't touch before," adding, "You can implement a master craftsman's know-how with AI and spread it to small and midsize companies."
Cha made the remarks in the morning at the "SME AX Leaders Forum," hosted by the economic outlet ChosunBiz and held at the Shilla Hotel in Jangchung-dong, Seoul.
The "SME AX Leaders Forum" is a small and venture business forum that ChosunBiz is hosting for the first time. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups, its affiliated agencies, small and midsize company CEOs, and AI experts are taking part to assess the current crisis facing small and midsize companies and discuss AX strategies to drive innovation. SME is the English abbreviation for Small and Medium Enterprise, meaning small and midsize company.
At the forum, Cha cited examples of AI adoption within the SK Group and explained the results and the need for it. "Petrochemical plants have many pipelines and pieces of equipment, and when a dangerous situation occurs, the facilities automatically stop or shut off," Cha said. "Skilled workers analyzed the situation and decided which valves to open and close, but now, within specific environments, AI can read the drawings and carry out the task," Cha explained.
He added, "Inside semiconductor plants as well, AI can imitate work histories as-is and take on new tasks," noting, "Agentic AI can handle practical tasks directly, not just references and advice, and it continues to expand into areas that were previously impossible."
AI utilization expenses are also falling. "Just five years ago, if you calculated how much the expense would be, it was an absurd task with no viable estimate, but now you can do it at a very low cost," Cha said. "The cases I mentioned are results produced by two to three of our AI engineers working for about two months, creating an overwhelming gap when adopting AI," Cha said.
Expense is a key factor in AI adoption by small and midsize companies. As many as 45.7% of small manufacturing companies cite a lack of investment expense as the biggest difficulty in adopting AI.
Cha emphasized, "What made me think, 'This could spread to small and midsize companies,' was this (expense)," adding, "For unit tasks, AI's individual capabilities have far surpassed those of people, and in manufacturing, you can implement the existing master craftsmen's know-how on the shop floor."
He also suggested that the government needs to play a role to enable collaboration between small and midsize companies and large companies. "There is a practical issue of how small manufacturers and large companies should share master craftsmen's know-how," Cha said, explaining, "If the government steps in and sets a method for sharing fair compensation, collaboration will move much faster."