Choi Jae-sik, a designated chair professor at KAIST, delivers a keynote address at the 2026 FKI CEO Jeju Summer Forum at Lotte Hotel in Seogwipo, Jeju Island, on Wednesday. [Federation of Korean Industries]
Choi Jae-sik, a designated chair professor at KAIST, delivers a keynote address at the 2026 FKI CEO Jeju Summer Forum at Lotte Hotel in Seogwipo, Jeju Island, on Wednesday. [Federation of Korean Industries]

Choi Jae-sik, a designated chair professor at KAIST, said Wednesday that simply adopting AI does not automatically raise an organization's productivity, and that companies must revamp their corporate culture and offer incentives when individual performance improves.

Choi delivered the opening keynote at the 2026 Federation of Korean Industries CEO Jeju Summer Forum, which kicked off Wednesday at Lotte Hotel in Seogwipo, Jeju Island. His lecture was titled "How Can Companies Survive and Lead in the Age of AI Transformation?"

Choi leads the manufacturing task force of the Presidential AI Strategy Committee and serves as chief executive of AI firm Ineasy. He said AI technology has moved well beyond streamlining internal operations and is now a core force reshaping corporate business models and entire industrial ecosystems.

"US companies are using at least one AI model — such as ChatGPT — in their work, and Korean companies are also applying AI in actual operations," he said, citing Samsung Electronics' Device Experience division as a company that recently introduced the ChatGPT Enterprise version.

"This shows that AI is becoming established as basic work infrastructure," he added.

Choi said successful real-world AI adoption remains rare. "If you assume 50 projects, typically only about two — around 5 percent — actually run well," he said.

He attributed this to unrealistic expectations. "Companies introduced AI without going through a process of trial and error and expected it to perform as well as a person," he said. "Ultimately, what matters is optimizing AI for actual operations."

He also stressed the importance of organizational culture and talent strategy as part of that effort.

"Even if individual performance rises through AI, that does not automatically translate into organizational performance," Choi said. "You need to improve work efficiency, change the corporate culture and keep making continuous improvements."


joze@heraldcorp.com