The Ministry of Science and ICT said on the 26th that the "2026 World IT Show," held at COEX in Seoul from the 22nd to the 24th, wrapped up successfully.
This year's World IT Show drew 460 corporations from 17 countries, and the number of visitors rose by more than 20,000 from a year earlier to 68,493. It was the largest since COVID-19.
Held under the theme "Beyond thinking to action: AI moves the real world," this year's event highlighted physical artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that combine with physical entities, including Robotics and autonomous manufacturing, as one of its main themes.
For the first time, all three telecom carriers—SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus—joined the exhibition, and leading Korean corporations such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Samsung SDS, and Kakao participated in large numbers.
Another achievement of this event was that various business programs for overseas expansion of Korean corporations and attracting investment produced meaningful results. At the "Global buyer export consultation," a total of 850 meetings were held between overseas buyers from 14 countries, including the United Kingdom, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Korean ICT corporations, and the value of export consultations reached $250 million (about 369.4 billion won), up 8.7% from a year earlier, marking an all-time high.
Lee Do-gyu, director general for communications policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "Based on this year's results, we will continue to develop it into a flagship platform that drives the national AI transformation and the global growth of AI full-stack promising corporations."