"Until now, it was an era of daema-bulsa (big horses never die), where scaling up meant you would never fail. But now it has become an era of daema-pilsa (big horses are sure to die), where the big ones are more likely to fall."
Big data expert Song Gil-yeong, an author who served as a vice president at VAIV company, said this at a press conference for the release of Forecast of the times: birth of a lightweight civilization held at the Kyobo Building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on the 11th.
Since 2023, Song has published the Forecast of the times series each year, observing people's daily lives and anticipating the currents of change. If the first two books (Era of nuclear individuals, Calling society) focused on the future of individuals and society, this time he declared the "birth of a lightweight civilization" and signaled changes unfolding across every organizational unit in our society.
"Lightweight civilization" refers to a new civilization equipped with artificial intelligence (AI). The author assessed that the augmented capabilities of nuclear individuals meeting AI will upend how existing organizations and corporations work, and that this change has already begun.
Song said, "Since the launch of the generative AI 'ChatGPT' on Nov. 30, 2022, global users have surpassed 700 million per week and domestic users 20 million. Korea ranks No. 2 in paid subscribers, showing fast technology adoption and adaptation," adding, "Even CEOs who were hesitant to adopt it due to security issues just last year have changed their stance this year, saying they will implement it."
Through these changes, Song predicted that the rules of success we knew will also be broken. Looking at the top 43 corporations as of July this year on "Lean AI Leaderboard," a site that ranks corporations with the highest revenue per person based on AI innovation, they posted an average of $2.49 million (about 3.4 billion won) in revenue per person. Their per-capita market capitalization is 163.3 billion won; considering Samsung Electronics' per-capita market capitalization (1.7 billion won), the per-member corporate value of AI corporations exceeds that of traditional large corporations by more than 96 times.
Until now, the success formula was for heavy, large-scale corporations to build industrial complexes with massive investment and raise productivity through a large workforce, but now individuals armed with AI can compete with corporations and lead a new era.
Of course, this does not mean all large corporations will struggle. Song said, "If an organization's structure is loose and its density is low, it can produce bigger outcomes. Conversely, even a small corporation will sink if its culture and mindset are heavy. A stone is small but sinks, and an airplane is huge but floats in the sky. Understand that it is a matter of structure, not size, and we must shift our attitude toward the world and our methods of collaboration."
For example, in advertising, the steps are being streamlined from the traditional 'advertiser→agency→partner→media→model' to 'advertiser→model.' Global large corporations such as Meta are already applying the streamlined approach.
Then how should we prepare for the era of lightweight civilization? Song said, "We must understand that the ways of production and collaboration have changed." Until now, industries were built with large-scale tangible assets, but going forward, the engine must be supported by intangible assets such as intellectual property (IP) and culture. A representative field is K-culture.
Song said, "K-culture is just beginning. In the past, the Korean Wave benefited in a few countries, but this is the first time it has opened up this massively on a global scale," adding, "It is premature to call this the peak now. However, if we deliver it in the old way, it will soon feel stale like Hong Kong cinema. The industry can continue to grow only if we keep expanding diversity among members and adopt a forward-leaning attitude to embrace new people."
Song said, "I observed that something big is coming fast—enough to move up the publication schedule by two weeks. If the first two books were 'forecasts,' this one is a 'special report.' I hope we all arm ourselves more so that this change, a blessing for everyone, does not become a calamity for each of us, and that we maintain a somewhat faster pace."