The Korean Society of Technology, Innovation and Management (35th president Ahn Jun-mo, professor at Korea University) said on the 10th that it successfully concluded the "2026 summer conference of the Korean Society of Technology, Innovation and Management," held at the Maison Glad Jeju hotel from July 2 to 4.
The conference, held under the theme "Agentic AI and the innovation ecosystem: From manufacturing to services," drew about 1,000 experts from industry, academia, research and government. Participants shared about 40 academic sessions and more than 100 research outcomes while discussing national innovation strategies and the future of technology management in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
The backdrop for spotlighting both manufacturing and services lies in the structural characteristics of the Korean economy. While the United States and the United Kingdom have services accounting for about 80% of GDP, Korea has an unusual industrial structure globally, with services at about 60% and manufacturing at about 26%–27%.
As advanced manufacturing such as semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding and batteries drives national growth and exports while AI-based service industries grow rapidly, the recognition at this conference was that building an innovation ecosystem that connects manufacturing and services is emerging as a core national competitiveness task.
In the keynote on the first day, Professor Cho Gyu-jin of Seoul National University presented directions for next-generation industrial innovation combining robots and AI under the theme "The future of physical AI." Cho said that beyond Generative AI, as AI combines with physical systems, autonomy and intelligence on the manufacturing floor will accelerate, and this change will create a new industrial ecosystem beyond productivity gains.
Next, Chun Young-gil, president of Korea Conformity Laboratories (KCL), explained the importance of testing and certification systems and quality infrastructure in the AI era, noting that, in step with the pace of industrial innovation, building a national verification system to secure reliability and safety and improving innovation processes are essential.
In the keynote on the second day, Yoon Ji-woong, president of the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI), laid out directions for transforming the national innovation ecosystem and the research and development (R&D) system in the AI era.
Yoon emphasized the need to go beyond technology-centered R&D to build an innovation platform where data, AI, talent and institutions are organically connected, along with national-level innovation of the research and development system. Then, Ma Min-cheol, CEO of AITStory and Eone Diagnomics Genome Center, shared AI-based anti-aging bio innovation cases, and Noh Beom-jun, executive director at LG, introduced smart home and industrial applications where AI is innovating space and customer experience, sharing the direction of AI innovation that fuses manufacturing and services.
At the "Future forum on innovation in technology management and future strategies," an in-depth discussion continued on what innovation strategies Korea should choose in the era of AI transformation.
The discussion formed a consensus that as agentic AI emerges as a new actor in research and development and industrial innovation, the paradigm of technology management is also changing. Participants assessed that future national competitiveness depends not only on securing individual AI technologies but also on building an industrial ecosystem that connects manufacturing and services, reliable AI governance, data-based research and development systems, and open innovation platforms based on cooperation among industry, academia, research and government.
They also agreed that in the AI era, management of technology (MOT) should evolve beyond its traditional role of managing technology into a national innovation design platform that connects technology, industry, policy and talent, and that for Korea, a manufacturing powerhouse, to secure AI competitiveness, a strategy that integratively drives both manufacturing innovation and service innovation is needed.
Participants in the discussion also agreed that to practically realize an AI innovation ecosystem that connects manufacturing and services, training the next generation in technology management to plan and execute it is paramount. They emphasized that, beyond understanding AI technology, convergent talent capable of viewing industrial sites, R&D, policy and data governance in an integrated manner will form the core foundation of national innovation capacity.
Founded in 1992, the Korean Society of Technology, Innovation and Management marks its 35th anniversary this year. The society has led convergent research in technology innovation, industrial policy and technology economics over the past 35 years.
Ahn Jun-mo, president of the Korean Society of Technology, Innovation and Management, said, "AI is now the core infrastructure leading innovation across industry and society," adding, "the Korean Society of Technology, Innovation and Management will further expand its role as a leading academic platform that presents Korea's future growth strategy and national research and development (R&D) vision, centered on an innovation ecosystem that connects manufacturing and services."