Company to declare 'AX Vision,' create dedicated AI units and overhaul 'organizational DNA'
External AI tools — Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude — fully authorized for all affiliates
More than 50 affiliate presidents to undergo intensive AI boot camp
Samsung will fully authorize the use of external generative AI services — Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude — across all its affiliates starting this month.
The company will also hold its first-ever intensive AI training session for presidents of all affiliates and jointly declare an AI transformation, or AX, vision reflecting the group's commitment to the shift.
The moves reflect a sense of urgency and crisis within Samsung that the company risks falling behind unless it fundamentally changes how it works, as the global industrial paradigm rapidly shifts toward AI.
Samsung said Tuesday that all affiliates will begin integrating AI into their operations this month, overhauling not only workflows but also organizational culture in what it calls a "great AI transformation." The push follows a directive from Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who said in his New Year's address earlier this year that the company must "completely overhaul the way we work and our organizational DNA" and "embed AI across every link in the value chain — from R&D to production, marketing and support."
As part of the initiative, Samsung will apply AI across eight core business functions: development, procurement, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, sales, service and management support. The goal goes beyond improving productivity — AI will be actively used to identify new growth engines.
Samsung said it is "developing detailed operating policies tailored to various job functions and organizational characteristics" and will "continuously upgrade services and policies so employees can use AI more efficiently."
The company will also launch intensive AI training aimed at raising the "AI literacy" of chief executives at each affiliate, whose leadership it considers critical to the success of the transformation. The training will be hands-on, based on the judgment that executives must be able to work with AI directly.
More than 50 affiliate presidents will attend a two-day "AX Boot Camp" at the Hoam Hall of Samsung's human resources development center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, sometime this month.
At the session, the presidents will jointly declare a shared "AX Vision" and each present their own plans for reforming business processes at their respective companies using AI.
All roughly 2,300 executives across Samsung affiliates will then undergo their own sessions — each lasting two nights and three days — at Samsung Electronics' talent development centers, with training to be completed by Aug. 12. A company-wide program covering all employees is also planned for completion by year's end.
Samsung said it plans to treat the presidential and executive training as "the starting point of a company-wide AX transformation" and will continue providing regular follow-up sessions so that management can redesign work processes and lead organizational change based on AI.
Dedicated AI units will also be established at every Samsung affiliate to maximize momentum for the transformation. Each unit will be tailored to the nature of its affiliate's business and will handle three areas: developing AX execution strategies, managing data and AI models, and cultivating AI talent.
Samsung drew a parallel to the 1990s, when the group — under the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee — embraced digital transformation through bold investment and preemptive change to become a global powerhouse. The company said it now aims to achieve an AI transformation of equivalent magnitude, completely remaking its organizational DNA.
"Samsung has leaped to become a world-class global company through bold challenges and innovation in the face of sweeping changes — the digital transformation, the mobile transformation," a Samsung official said. "The 'great AI transformation' is the starting point of our drive to become an AI-native company. We will seize and lead the opportunities of the AI era."
joze@heraldcorp.com
