The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) said on the 20th they are recruiting "2026 Challenge Diagnosis participating corporations" to support strengthening the competitiveness of small and midsize companies.
Challenge Diagnosis is a field-centered, problem-solving program in which experts in each field diagnose corporations' management issues and causes and support customized solutions and improvement activities. The support targets are small and midsize corporations engaged in manufacturing with sales of at least 5 billion won. KOSME plans to select a total of 50 corporations through a screening by a selection committee made up of external experts.
Selected corporations choose one of four areas—financial management, production management, quality management, or marketing—and conduct a total of 10 consulting sessions with an expert in that field.
Starting this year, to support the AI transformation (AX) of small and midsize corporations, an AX diagnosis will also be conducted for corporations participating in Challenge Diagnosis. The AX diagnosis is a program that supports introducing AI across corporate operations such as management and production and expanding it step by step. It focuses on analyzing the corporation's current capabilities and readiness level and presenting a customized AI transformation roadmap that can be used on site.
The diagnosis is conducted focusing on key areas such as management and strategy, organization and personnel, business and processes, data, and IT and systems. Based on this, the plan is to assess each corporation's AI transformation level and identify priority application areas and execution tasks.
Corporations wishing to participate can apply online on the KOSME website by the 4th of next month.
Kang Seok-jin, chair of KOSME, said, "Through Challenge Diagnosis, we will help small and midsize corporations diagnose and improve the problems they face on the ground," and "We will do our best to help small and midsize corporations turn crisis into opportunity and strengthen their competitiveness."