[A Sip of Books] Disruptive Innovation in the AI Era... Korea Is at Risk

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The world is currently swept by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) craze. AlphaFold, an AI developed by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google, revealed protein structures that had eluded researchers for 10 years in just 30 minutes, earning the research team the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The AI era is opening across all industries, from manufacturing to creativity. However, AI development in Korea is slow. According to the 'AI Maturity Matrix' published by Boston Consulting Group, Korea is not among the leading AI nations such as the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. There is a risk that Korea might become a loser in the future technology war. The author, a judge for the CES 2025 Innovation Awards, faces the reality Korea is in while seeking opportunities for creative innovation using AI.

Especially, China's DeepSeek emerged like a comet, revealing R1, claiming to have developed AI with performance comparable to OpenAI for only 8 billion won, causing Nvidia's stock price to plunge 17 percent (860 trillion won). This success was due to developing AI that threatens OpenAI with low-performance chips and minimal development costs. Alibaba also unveiled Q-One 2.5-Max, claiming to surpass OpenAI's GPT-4o and DeepSeek-V3 in almost every domain. Alarmed, OpenAI introduced a new AI inference model, o3-mini, boasting low cost and high speed. AI development competition is entering a new phase.” - From the Prologue, ‘Even at this moment, AI is changing the world’

While land, labor, and capital were the key foundations in the previous economic system, AI is becoming the core element creating new value in the digital economy. For example, AI-based recommendation systems, personalized marketing, and intelligent monitoring systems are sources of new services and products that were previously impossible. Above all, insights gained through AI will play a crucial role in helping companies create new business models and strengthen competitiveness. Observing this trend, it becomes clearer that those who ignore changes in the AI era and rely solely on their own abilities will remain ‘ordinary individuals’ and eventually be left behind. Since everyone has the opportunity to become a ‘super individual,’ it is time to discard fear of AI and seek ways to evolve together.” - From Chapter 1, ‘Five AI Revolutions Opening New Business Opportunities’

The edutech market is also growing rapidly in Korea. Companies like Riiid, EduClass, Classting, Math Captain, and MathGPT are shaping the AI education market. Riiid’s flagship service, AI tutor Santa, greatly helps TOEIC learners improve their scores through one-on-one personalized learning. AI provides real-time feedback, analyzes learners’ levels and weaknesses, and offers customized problems. Furthermore, it enables learners to self-assess their skills through diagnostic tests and recommends effective problems for score improvement. It also provides useful test-taking strategies such as proper time allocation and skills. (Omitted) Schools remain among the slowest institutions to change in our society. For this reason, even after graduating from high school or university, people must undergo retraining to be competent in the workplace, leading to a vicious cycle of increasing social costs for education. AI will play a leading role in solving these problems. For the future of the nation, society, and businesses, a major AI-driven transformation in education is an urgent task.” - From Chapter 4, ‘Breaking the Mold of the Education Market from Schools to Companies with AI Business’

Concerns about security vulnerabilities and information leaks remain major obstacles to cloud adoption. Examples include unauthorized access to critical data, risks during data transmission, network attacks, and insider data leaks, all of which remain challenges to overcome. Security is no longer optional but essential for companies. Therefore, companies providing cloud services are expected to invest heavily in strengthening security technologies. Amid this situation, there are growing concerns that the domestic private cloud market is increasingly being encroached upon by foreign companies. According to the ‘2023 Value-Added Telecommunications Business Survey’ released by the Ministry of Science and ICT, 60.2 percent of domestic private companies use AWS cloud services, while 24 percent and 19.9 percent use Microsoft and Google, respectively. Among domestic companies, only Naver Cloud showed a 20 percent usage rate. With Microsoft entering the domestic public cloud market, it is time for domestic companies to face new challenges.” - From Chapter 6, ‘The AGI Era Thinking and Acting Like Humans, the Heated Hegemony War’

AI is also applied in the treatment of tinnitus, opening new possibilities and providing patients with a better quality of life. According to health insurance review and assessment statistics, about 300,000 to 350,000 patients receive treatment for tinnitus annually. Hanyang University has gained attention as a problem solver for tinnitus. Hanyang University developed the tinnitus digital therapeutic device TD2 using VR technology and AI, winning an innovation award. This device combines auditory, visual, and tactile feedback systems through VR equipment to perform cognitive therapy, and AI-generated spatial sound eliminates or controls tinnitus in the VR environment. This technology has created an innovation that effectively alleviates tinnitus symptoms without the side effects of drug treatment. It is the only university research institute product among this year’s top innovation award winners. - From Special Appendix 2, ‘Innovative Products and AI Business Highlighted at CES 2025’

Next AI Business | Written by Choi Eun-su | Business Books | 352 pages | 18,500 won