Korea's leading IT service corporations aiming to seize the lead in the AI transition (AX) market centered on artificial intelligence (AI) agents have picked robots as their next growth engine and begun developing related technologies. It is seen as an attempt to preempt the related market on the view that after the "AI transition" comes the "robot transition (RX)."
According to the industry on the 7th, LG CNS, Hyundai AutoEver, and SK AX began in earnest to enter the robot business this year. Because robots are needed for AX in manufacturing, Korea's mainstay industry, their strategy is to grow the related business from a long-term perspective.
IT service corporations have the advantage of relatively easy linkage with the robot business because they have handled the construction and maintenance of group companies' IT infrastructure and thus have experience in production line automation and operations optimization. While robots themselves are made by robot manufacturers such as Boston Dynamics, to deploy them on production lines, a "robot brain" must be designed and operated for each process, and IT service corporations with extensive smart factory experience are said to have an edge in this area.
LG CNS said at its second-quarter earnings conference call that it will begin in earnest in the second half of this year a humanoid-based robot transition business applying a robot foundation model (RFM). To that end, it will establish a dedicated artificial intelligence and robotics research and development (R&D) center in Silicon Valley, United States. The goal is to develop robot software that serves as the "brain" of robots. As part of that effort, it also joined hands with overseas robot corporations. In June, LG CNS signed a strategic cooperation agreement with U.S. AI robot corporation Skilled AI and began developing industrial humanoid robot solutions based on robot foundation models tailored to manufacturing, logistics, and other industrial sites. A robot foundation model refers to a general-purpose AI model that supports robots in learning data such as images, text, voice, and video and operating autonomously in various environments. With autonomous driving robot corporation Bear Robotics, it will jointly develop autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and robot control solutions.
Since taking office, LG CNS President Hyun Sin-gyun has pushed the transition to an AX-specialized corporation and emphasized the importance of securing next-generation robot technologies, including robot foundation models. He said at a press briefing in Aug. that "LG CNS is responsible for applying robots in the field." To rebloom as an intelligent AI robot service corporation over the long term, LG CNS is recruiting global talent with master's and doctoral degrees and pursuing strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Hyundai AutoEver is also set to begin in earnest its robot business in the second half of this year in line with Hyundai Motor Group's policy to strengthen its robotics business. Hyundai Motor Group has said it will raise the share of the robotics business to about 20% of revenue by 2030. The market expects Hyundai AutoEver is highly likely to be in charge of training and controlling the robots introduced by Hyundai Motor Group, and related revenue is projected to increase. Samsung Securities estimated, "Based on 30,000 robots, Hyundai AutoEver's expected revenue will reach 3.7 trillion won over the next four years."
SK Group also jumped into humanoid robot development by acquiring Yuil Robotics in the first half of this year, and if the group strengthens the robot business at the company-wide level, SK AX, which is currently focusing on AX for advanced manufacturing industries such as semiconductors, is highly likely to take on the role of robot control.
An official in the IT service industry said, "Because building smart factories is not much different from applying and operating humanoid robots on production lines, if major domestic group companies foster the robot business as a future growth engine, the role of IT service corporations could grow."