The government plans to expand the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-based design across all industrial sectors to enhance industrial competitiveness. To this end, it will pursue four key tasks, including securing core competitiveness in the AI design field and supporting workforce development, aiming to increase the utilization rate of design across all industries from the current 37% to over 60%.
On the 9th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held an 'AI Design Field Meeting' chaired by Minister An Deok-geun at LG Science Park in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, where it announced the 'AI Design Expansion Strategy' based on these plans. The 'AI Design Expansion Strategy' was prepared through four months of discussions by the 'AI New Industry Policy Committee,' launched in May, together with design associations, organizations, and design and AI companies.
The AI New Industry Policy Committee has been announcing monthly strategies for six major AI sectors, including design, research and development (R&D), energy, distribution, and AI semiconductors, starting with the release of the 'AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0' last month.
In the 'AI Design Expansion Strategy' announced that day, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy stated it would pursue four key tasks to achieve goals such as a 50% AI adoption rate among design companies, 10,000 AI designers, and 500 AI design innovative companies. Through this, it aims to raise the overall design utilization rate across industries from the current 37% to 60%.
As the first key task, the ministry proposed the 'development and dissemination of three major AI services' with high AI utilization awareness among design companies and designers, based on data held by the public sector. Starting this year, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion will collaborate with AI specialized companies to begin developing market trend analysis, design similarity search, and a specialized lightweight language model (sLLM) for design knowledge and research.
Next year, focusing on four major areas with high AI design utilization effects?consumer goods design, optimal engineering parts design, automated manufacturing process design, and automatic digital design generation?the ministry will support the development of 20 AI design models over three years and promote the spread of successful cases.
The second task is to secure core competitiveness in AI design by preparing and announcing an 'AI Design Core Technology Roadmap' within the year. To this end, a committee of experts from industry, academia, and research institutes will be formed to develop the roadmap, and full-scale R&D investment will begin next year.
The goal of training 10,000 AI specialist designers to secure AI competitiveness was also set. To achieve this, the Korea Institute of Design Promotion will develop and distribute AI design education programs centered on its human resource development council and support education by establishing five new interdisciplinary majors combining design and AI.
The third task proposed by the ministry is the 'creation of new AI design markets.' To this end, 150 innovative projects utilizing generative AI will be selected and supported across four major industrial sectors: manufacturing, public sector, engineering, and packaging.
The final task is the 'design of design systems and norms suitable for the AI era.' To discuss issues that could hinder the spread of AI design, such as design copyrights, data privacy, and ethics, a public-private joint discussion body for design system reform will be established in the second half of this year, and proactive enactment and revision of related laws, including the Industrial Design Act, will be pursued.
Additionally, international cooperation will be strengthened by launching the AI Design Asia Initiative with design promotion agencies from countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Minister An Deok-geun experienced the latest generative AI technologies and domestic and international solution industry applications at the 'Zen AI Studio' located in LG Science Park and exchanged opinions with industry representatives. Minister An said, "In the AI era, I hope our design companies and designers will actively adopt and utilize AI ahead of anyone else to become the world's best companies and talents. The government will faithfully implement the strategy announced today so that K-Design can take a new leap forward by leveraging AI."
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