Experts Share Their Insights from CES 2025
A Glimpse into the Era of Transformation Driven by Artificial Intelligence
Korean Companies Showcase Global Competitiveness and Innovation Strategies
Junha Kim, Dean of AI Policy and Strategy Graduate School at GIST
Academics, researchers, and industry experts who visited CES 2025, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition, unanimously agreed that this event demonstrated the dawn of a major transformation era where technology, centered on artificial intelligence (AI), is completely changing everyday life and society. They also emphasized the need for more proactive investment support for South Korea to lead the AI era.
On the 13th, Kim Jun-ha, Dean of the AI Policy and Strategy Graduate School at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, said, "We were able to see how technology will impact our lives through autonomous vehicles, AI-based home appliances, and AI-centered industrial innovation." He added, "The exhibition showed that the 'era of transformation,' where technology changes daily life and society, has truly arrived, and it presented a blueprint for how technology will innovate our lives and how companies and society will accept and utilize these changes."
Dean Kim pointed out that CES 2025 was a festival of autonomous vehicle technology. He evaluated, "Autonomous vehicles have established themselves as 'current technology,' not 'future technology.'" He found it interesting that while Tesla emphasizes autonomous driving without LiDAR, many competitors are taking a different path by choosing sophisticated LiDAR-based autonomous driving solutions. In particular, Amazon AWS's cloud AI autonomous driving solution was officially exhibited, demonstrating how cloud and AI can support the autonomous driving ecosystem. The booths of Waymo, Mobileye, Hyundai Mobis, and LG Innotek clearly reflected fierce competition and potential collaboration in this field.
Dean Kim emphasized that in the AI home appliance sector, Samsung and LG fully upgraded the exhibits they showed at IFA 2024 to concretely implement a more powerful AI-based smart home ecosystem. He pointed out, "Chinese companies have approached Samsung and LG in terms of product diversity, but they still showed limitations in AI connectivity and integration."
SK Group's declaration of its AI Data Center (AIDC) business and Lotte Group's entertainment AI strategy demonstrated the new spirit of challenge among Korean companies, and domestic AI startups also showed competitiveness in the global market.
Osangrok, Director of KIST
Oh Sang-rok, President of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), evaluated CES 2025 as an intense battleground for artificial intelligence (AI). President Oh said, "Although the participation of Chinese companies decreased due to U.S. restrictions, they still showed strong presence in terms of volume, and it was enough to convey the message that Chinese technology has moved beyond 'price competitiveness' to securing technological leadership."
Among Korean companies, SK, LG, and the mid-sized company Daedong stood out for significantly changing their existing images through AI. President Oh diagnosed, "Daedong, an agricultural machinery company, made an astonishing transformation with future-type tractors incorporating AI agents."
As a leading domestic robotics expert, President Oh pointed out that robots, including humanoids that became a hot topic due to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's mention of physical AI at CES, did not make as big an impact as expected. He said, "It is regrettable that humanoids centered on hardware machines and simple services still do not meet expectations for the convergence of AI and robotics."
Professor Kyungjeon Lee, Kyung Hee University
Professor Lee Kyung-jeon of Kyung Hee University's Department of Business Administration cited NVIDIA's palm-sized personal AI supercomputer 'Project Digits' showcased at CES 2025 as the biggest news. Professor Lee said, "From 2025, individuals will be able to freely fine-tune AI models at the level of ChatGPT 3.5 on their own computers and create their own powerful AI," adding, "This is comparable to Henry Ford launching the Model T, Steve Jobs releasing the Apple II personal computer, and the iPhone smartphone ? a historic event marking the first personal AI computer for humanity."
Jeon Young-soo, Director of the Information and Communication Industry Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "It was a time when the whole world dived into the AI world," and added, "Jensen Huang talked about physical AI, and the development of AI moving down from the cloud to physical entities such as devices and humanoid robots was prominent."
There were also opinions emphasizing the need to prepare for the direction presented by CES 2025.
Dean Kim said, "AI has established itself not just as a technological advancement but as a tool driving innovation across society," and added, "South Korea has the opportunity to leap forward as a global leader through an innovation strategy centered on social value transformation (SVX) that integrates technology development and social value creation. National-level innovative thinking and cooperation must support this to pioneer a new path as a leading country in the AI era."
President Oh said, "It was an exhibition where companies worldwide competed to showcase AI technologies, and the on-site enthusiasm was very high, but we must consider how many of these AI technologies have secured definite business models that 'actually make money.'" He added that no matter how astonishing the technology displayed is, if it does not lead to the market, its value cannot be highly evaluated.
Director Jeon said, "In an expanding and deepening market, we were able to confirm the advanced skills and creativity of our companies and talents," and added, "The government will also intensify its support efforts for global challenges and innovative technology commercialization."
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