The Hunet CEO Forum "Foresight Korea 2025," held at the Parnas Hotel in Samsung-dong, Seoul, proved to be a significant gathering focused on exploring future corporate strategies and innovation approaches. Sessions covering generative AI implementation strategies, a hot topic among businesses today, garnered particular attention from executives. Notably, Microsoft Executive Director Lee Kun-bok's presentation on "Improving Productivity Through AI" drew significant interest for its practical solutions.
Lee, who oversees corporate digital transformation and AI implementation at Microsoft, provides valuable insights into enterprise applications of generative AI and productivity enhancement. His presentation began with a compelling perspective on the new paradigm of corporate competitiveness.
The New Corporate Paradigm
Today's businesses must pursue agile innovation while maintaining ethical standards. Drawing an interesting parallel, Lee explained how this shift mirrors society's evolving expectations of athletes – no longer judged solely on performance but also on character. Similarly, companies must now create multifaceted value beyond profit, encompassing social contribution, employee satisfaction, and stakeholder engagement.
Corporate competitiveness has evolved with time. While capital, workforce, and business models were once paramount, today's focus has shifted to agility, innovation, and ethical conduct.
"We're in an era where companies must drive rapid innovation while fulfilling social responsibilities. Though challenging, this is an essential mission for modern businesses."
ESG factors have emerged as crucial competitive elements, emphasizing the need for corporate facilities, equipment, and culture to contribute to and harmonize with society.
The Impact of Generative AI
Microsoft's "Work Trend Index" survey, covering 31,000 people across 31 countries, reveals striking findings: 75% of users are already implementing generative AI in their work, with nearly half investing personally in these tools even without company support. Particularly noteworthy is individuals' voluntary investment in AI tools for career development and performance enhancement, indicating that generative AI has transcended its role as a mere tool to become an essential element of personal professional competitiveness.
Generative AI is making waves across various sectors, from graphic design and content creation to marketing, software development, and customer service. In customer service, AI contact centers now enable representatives to access and utilize vast product information in real-time. The technology also streamlines operations by converting customer voice data into text and delivering summarized insights to decision-makers instantly.
The benefits extend beyond time savings. For instance, when a developer earning $80,000 annually saves two hours daily, it translates to 500 hours or $8,640 in annual cost savings.
"The key isn't just saving time – it's how we utilize that saved time."
Developers typically spend less than two hours daily on actual coding, with over six hours consumed by meetings and research. AI can reduce this auxiliary workload, allowing focus on core tasks, leading to improved developer satisfaction, better program quality, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced maintenance costs.
Preparing for AI Implementation
Successful AI implementation requires careful preparation:
Organization and Culture:
Foster information sharing and collaborative culture
Ensure documents aren't isolated on individual laptops but accessible for AI utilization
Leadership and Sponsorship:
Secure top management support without being overly forceful
Encourage voluntary participation through focus groups with guaranteed benefits
AI Business Strategy:
Align AI implementation with business objectives
Focus on solving specific business challenges rather than implementing AI for its own sake
AI Governance:
Establish consistent company-wide AI utilization frameworks
Avoid fragmented departmental implementations
Technical Strategy:
Develop approaches for generating high-quality data
Focus on technical infrastructure
From Digital to AI Transformation
While companies have pursued digital transformation for the past seven years, few can confidently claim success. True digital transformation isn't merely about digitizing systems – it's about digitally expressing all corporate assets to enable simulation, prediction, and better decision-making.
This digital evolution is now progressing into AI transformation. It's not a future blueprint but a present reality. AI transformation leverages digitized corporate assets and data for faster, more accurate decision-making, establishing new standards for corporate competitiveness.
The implementation approach is crucial. Rather than waiting for perfect data preparation, organizations should embrace an iterative process where AI implementation naturally reveals data gaps and process improvement opportunities – similar to the early adoption phases of internet and smartphone technologies.
The Future with Generative AI
Generative AI represents more than technological adoption – it's driving fundamental changes in corporate culture and work methods. For instance, in a team of ten developers, AI serves not as a replacement but as an enabler, potentially increasing each developer's productivity by 50%.
"We need to shift our perspective to see AI as a collaborative tool rather than a labor replacement."
Drawing a historical parallel, this transformation mirrors the impact of Gutenberg's printing press in the 15th century. While the immediate effect was increased productivity (from two months per Bible to ten copies per day), the more significant impact was the cultural renaissance and industrial revolution it sparked. Similarly, generative AI is expected to catalyze transformative changes across industries beyond mere productivity gains.
In conclusion, embracing generative AI is both an inevitable challenge and opportunity for businesses. Successful AI transformation requires not just technological readiness but also cultural change, leadership commitment, and systematic strategy. Just as the French Revolution was enabled by Gutenberg's printing press, future corporate innovation will be intrinsically linked to AI adoption.
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