There was a warning that corporations could fail to transition to AI-native if they use artificial intelligence (AI) only to shorten working hours and cut expense. The suggestion was that they should completely redesign AI initiatives based on the goals of the higher organization or the entire business, not just stop at achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) for each corporation or department.
Cho Yong-min, Unbound Lab Dev chief executive officer (CEO), said at the Agentforce Digital Summit 2026 held at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 16th, "We must not stop at existing KPIs," and added, "Design a 'Level+1' KPI that solves the goal of the organization immediately above you, and build AI initiatives based on that."
Agentforce Digital Summit is a marketing- and commerce-focused conference hosted by Salesforce, Inc.. This year's event was held under the theme "The Next Question: Sharp curiosity that changes the rules of business."
Taking the stage as the first keynote speaker, CEO Cho founded the global venture capital (VC) Unbound Lab Dev in 2024 after stints at Samsung Electronics and Google. Unbound Lab Dev has drawn industry attention as an early investor in Anthropic, a global AI front-runner, and the space corporation SpaceX.
CEO Cho noted that simply adding AI while leaving the old KPI framework as is cannot change the fundamental constitution of corporations. Instead, he explained that KPIs themselves should be redefined so that AI can contribute to achieving the higher goals of the business.
He introduced a case in which domestic convenience store corporations applied AI to "1+1 promotions." One corporation focused on reducing product waste by linking expiration dates and inventory data, while another designed the lineup of promotional items by comprehensively analyzing external variables such as weather information, delivery schedules, and World Cup match schedules.
According to CEO Cho, at one pilot store of the second corporation, waste of triangle kimbap and dairy products increased, but the store owner's monthly revenue rose by about 80%. He said this was the result of designing AI with the goal of "maximizing the store owner's final profit," one level above the existing "minimizing waste."
CEO Cho also cautioned against corporations viewing AI only as a tool to reduce the processing time of existing tasks. He said, "If you create an AI initiative that reduces an eight-hour task to five minutes, you may think expense is reduced and operations are efficient, but you have to see whether real life has changed," and added, "Rather than putting the emphasis on streamlining tasks, you should consider 'what solution would be needed to replace me entirely.'"
Here, "replace" means not stopping at simply streamlining current tasks, but assuming AI performs the work and considering higher-level problems and new KPIs.
He also expressed concern about corporations setting a step-by-step roadmap of "AI-assisted → AI-led → AI-native." CEO Cho said, "With a phased approach, it is difficult to become AI-native," and added, "You have to consider whether to design an AI-native engine for better decision-making, or to design for streamlining existing tasks."
On the day, Salesforce, Inc. also emphasized that the value of enterprise AI should go beyond simple internal operational efficiency and connect to real business growth.
Park Se-jin, head of Salesforce, Inc. Korea, said, "In an era when AI proposes optimal answers, corporate competitiveness depends not only on securing reliable data and using AI effectively, but on how to connect the insights derived to the customer experience," and added, "AI agents now serve as the key driver in marketing and commerce, understanding customer behavior and intent in real time and connecting campaigns, commerce, sales, and service end to end as a single flow."