Research results have shown that when corporations utilize artificial intelligence (AI), their sales and added value increase. Corporations that have adopted AI technology have seen an average increase of about 7.6% in added value and approximately 4% in sales.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Sustainability Growth Initiative (SGI) released this information on the 8th through its report titled "The Impact of AI Adoption on Corporate Performance and Productivity and Implications." However, statistically significant figures did not emerge regarding the adoption of AI and productivity improvement.
This research was based on data from the Statistical Office's corporate activity survey from 2017 to 2023. It compared the distribution of sales, added value, labor productivity, and total factor productivity for groups categorized into non-AI adopting and AI adopting corporations before and after adoption. Total factor productivity is an indicator that measures corporate productivity excluding contributions from traditional production factors such as labor and capital.
The report explained, "Corporations that adopted AI showed overall higher performance and productivity compared to non-adopting corporations," adding that "especially after adoption, there is a noticeable trend of an increase in the proportion of high-performance and high-productivity corporations."
Earlier, the new government stated its intention to push for an investment of 100 trillion won with the goal of entering the 'top three AI powers in the world.' The intention is to build an AI ecosystem through large-scale investments to enhance productivity and strengthen industrial competitiveness.
The report noted that the AI adoption rate among Korean corporations remained at 2.8% in 2018, but increased to 6.4% in 2023 with the emergence of generative AI. The utilization rates of AI by industry varied significantly, with the information and communication sector at 26%, the educational services sector at 15.7%, the financial and insurance sector at 15.5%, all industries at 6.4%, and manufacturing at 4.0%.
KORCHAM stated, "Recently, the widely noted general-purpose AI technology appears to have limitations in sufficiently analyzing and utilizing complex technical data such as data, equipment, and environmental variables required in the manufacturing sector. The development of manufacturing AI technology specialized for the industry is expected to be important."