Forum spotlights innovation trends in AI, robotics and other key industries

Large companies and startups share expertise with trade sector

Jang Seok-min, executive vice president of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), delivers opening remarks at the first KITA Innovation Forum held at COEX Startup Branch in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on Wednesday. [Korea International Trade Association]
Jang Seok-min, executive vice president of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), delivers opening remarks at the first KITA Innovation Forum held at COEX Startup Branch in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on Wednesday. [Korea International Trade Association]

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) held the first KITA Innovation Forum — "Industry Innovation Trends from Global Companies" — at COEX Startup Branch on Wednesday.

The event was organized to help South Korea's trade industry understand innovation trends across major sectors and develop business strategies amid a rapidly changing global industrial environment. About 150 representatives from export companies attended.

The forum opened with a keynote address titled "A Bird's-Eye View of Industrial Innovation Trends and the Future," followed by presentation sessions from global company experts covering five fields: AI home appliances and consumer electronics, robotics, mobility, energy infrastructure and manufacturing innovation, and environment and construction. Speakers shared real-world examples of technological change and corporate responses, and outlined key takeaways for Korean companies looking to identify new business opportunities.

Park Hyung-gon, a partner at Deloitte, said in the keynote that "AI is moving beyond simple technology adoption and entering a phase where it is reshaping how companies operate and how industries are structured," adding that "the focus of competition will now center on how quickly AI can be applied to business and production settings and translated into real results."

Choi Ho-young, a team leader at LG Electronics who led the AI home appliances and consumer electronics session, said "AI is evolving beyond enhancing product functions to organically connecting services in line with users' lifestyle patterns and living spaces." He added that "competition is expanding from individual device-centered rivalry to a race for dominance over ecosystems that encompass entire living spaces, which will bring significant changes to the customer experience."

Jeong Seong-hun, a manager at LS Electric, said that "as AI-driven industries grow, the importance of stable power supply and energy efficiency is rising in tandem," and that "demand will grow rapidly in related fields such as power distribution, power management and smart energy solutions."

Jang Seok-min, executive vice president of KITA, said the forum was created "to spread the innovation capabilities and know-how accumulated by large companies and startups across the broader trade industry," and pledged to "continue holding topic-specific innovation forums to help Korean companies proactively respond to industrial change and create new business opportunities."

Meanwhile, KITA held separate business community events in Seoul with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the first Korea-Central Asia Summit. The presidents of both countries attended in person and expressed their commitment to expanding cooperation with Korean companies.


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