[2024 Future Business Forum] HD Hyundai "Expanding AI Solutions Within Group to Become a Global Leading Company"

Chosun Introduces AI in Construction Machinery and Energy Sectors
"Building a Sustainable AI Ecosystem"

Kim Young-ok, Executive Director of AI Strategy at HD Hyundai, emphasized on the 22nd that "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a core foundational technology not only for production efficiency but also for achieving the group's future value of Ocean Transformation?the great transformation of the sea."

Kim Young-ok, Executive Director of AI Strategy at HD Hyundai, is giving a lecture at the 2024 Asia Future Business Forum hosted by Asia Economy on the 22nd at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

On the same day, at the ‘2024 Asia Future Enterprise Forum’ held at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul, Executive Director Kim analyzed the impact of the massive wave of AI on the shipbuilding industry. Leading AI transformation across the HD Hyundai Group, he presented HD Hyundai’s AI strategy and application cases.

HD Hyundai is actively adopting AI at the enterprise-wide level. The group is developing AI solutions tailored to each core business sector, including shipbuilding, construction machinery, and energy. In particular, the shipbuilding sector is advancing to secure a leading position in the future marine market with the vision of Ocean Transformation. Ocean Transformation consists of four core visions driving the great transformation of the sea: Ocean Mobility, Ocean Wise, Ocean Life, and Ocean Energy. Executive Director Kim stated, "To achieve these four core directions, we are developing and applying various key digital technologies such as AI and big data."

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore, a subsidiary of HD Hyundai, has introduced integrated safety control solutions (HiCAMS) and integrated condition diagnosis solutions (HiCBM) as representative examples of AI utilization. In August last year, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore delivered the world’s first vessel equipped with an AI-based engine automation solution. HiCAMS is a system where AI automatically recognizes unexpected situations onboard and acts as an AI crew member replacing deckhands during vessel operation. HiCBM is a technology where AI diagnoses the condition of major machinery on the ship in real-time to detect signs of malfunction during navigation. For example, it detects and alerts abnormal signs such as damage to bearings of major rotating equipment or engines, or a sudden rise in exhaust gas temperature.

With recent tightening of ship carbon emission regulations, HD Hyundai also developed a solution to measure emissions during navigation. Ocean Wise by HD Hyundai Marine Solutions is an AI-based carbon reduction solution that uses digital twin technology to create a virtual environment identical to the real one, showing and predicting carbon emissions based on navigation routes, weather, and tidal changes. As actual navigation data accumulates, AI technology can be used to improve accuracy. Executive Director Kim explained, "This was born from the synergy between the shipbuilding know-how accumulated at HD Hyundai and advanced AI technology."

Kim Young-ok, Executive Director of AI Strategy at HD Hyundai, is giving a lecture at the 2024 Asia Future Business Forum hosted by Asia Economy at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 22nd. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Earlier this year, HD Hyundai announced three major innovation goals: ▲ securing safety through digital technology ▲ unmanned autonomy for productivity improvement ▲ building an energy value chain and decarbonization. Alongside this, they unveiled for the first time the innovative technologies ‘X-Wise’ and ‘X-Wise Site’ that will lead the achievement of these visions. X-Wise is an AI platform that maximizes the safety and efficiency of equipment operation, enabling unmanned autonomous work. X-Wise Site is an intelligent site management system that connects equipment equipped with this technology to create optimal synergy at construction sites. This system is planned to be applied to all industrial solutions of HD Hyundai going forward.

Additionally, HD Hyundai is expanding AI utilization into office work. HD-GPT, the HD Hyundai version of ChatGPT, is currently applied in the HD Hyundai Construction Machinery call center service. Previously, customer service representatives spent time searching manuals and had to additionally confirm with dealerships for information not found in the manuals, causing inconvenience. Now, the entire process is automated with AI. Executive Director Kim said, "For technical inquiry responses, generative AI automates the process, reducing handling time and providing optimal answers based on inquiry-related data."

HD Hyundai plans to continue expanding intelligent AI at the group level. To this end, they aim to continuously secure AI specialists and build an AI value chain to create a sustainable ecosystem. Executive Director Kim emphasized, "Our goal is to become a leading AI company in global networking by strengthening collaboration systems with AI research institutes."