ChosunBiz held the AX Leaders Grand Prize awards ceremony at the "2026 SME AX Leaders Forum" on the 9th at the Westin Josun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Launched for the first time this year, the AX Leaders Grand Prize was created to identify and spread small and midsize corporations that have achieved results such as work innovation, higher productivity, and stronger competitiveness through AI transformation (AX). By sharing best practices, it aims to spur AI transformation among Korea's small and midsize corporations and drive the spread of AX across industries.
On the day, Taelim Industrial (CEO Oh Kyung-jin) received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award, GenGenAI (CEO Cho Ho-jin) received the ChosunBiz CEO Award, Markcloud (CEO Jung Sang-il) received the top prize, and Cellkey AI (CEO Lee Nam-yong) received the Future Innovation Award.
Yoo Hyo-sang, head of the Unicorn Management and Economics Research Institute, who served as a judge, said, "Together with small and midsize corporations and AI experts, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of business feasibility, technological prowess, innovativeness, executability, and scalability to select corporations," and added, "At a time when 'Lean AI Native' players—who create unicorn-level value with a very small number of people using AI—are emerging worldwide, we expect Lean AI Native corporations to emerge in Korea as well."
Taelim Industrial is a manufacturing corporation that produces core parts for automotive steering systems, and it built an autonomous manufacturing system that combines digital twins, vision AI, and logistics automation with autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). As a result, it increased daily output by 19.6 percent, reduced the defect rate in the grinding process by 40 percent, and saved about 96 million won annually in labor costs. Based on AI-driven manufacturing competitiveness, it is also expanding orders from global clients.
GenGenAI is a corporation that generates synthetic data for defense AI training. Through "GenGenStudio," which combines a world model with domain-specific generative AI, it mass-produces hard-to-obtain SAR (synthetic aperture radar) imagery as well as electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) drone footage to solve the data shortage in defense AI development. It is expanding its presence in the defense AI market by securing major defense corporations and institutions such as the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), Hanwha Aerospace, Hyundai Rotem, and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) as clients.
Markcloud, which won the top prize, developed "Markpass," an AI-based trademark application automation solution. By automating product classification, office action responses, and opinion letter drafting, it cut trademark filing work time by about 85 percent, and its AI-based refusal response strategies and case law recommendations increased the likelihood of registration success and improved work accuracy. Markcloud posted sales of 1.7 billion won last year, achieving a 64 percent growth rate from the previous year.
Cellkey AI, which won the Future Innovation Award, developed an AI-based platform for analyzing diverse omics data and digitized the bio research process. The company integrated the entire process—from analysis requests to results interpretation and follow-up research proposals—into an agentic AI platform, turning the complex workflows of traditional bio research into a digital service. Data interpretation speed rose 200 percent, report generation speed rose 300 percent, and the business pipeline grew 400 percent year over year. It is currently pushing global expansion, starting with Japan and moving to the United States and the Middle East.
This AX Leaders Grand Prize is meaningful in that it identified cases of small and midsize corporations that linked AI to real gains in productivity and quality, expense cuts, and revenue growth. ChosunBiz plans to continue introducing outstanding AX success cases and contribute to the spread of AX among Korea's small and midsize corporations.