KB Financial Group Pursues AI as a Future Growth Engine to Enhance Competitiveness
Financial Industry Significantly Reduces or Cancels Attendance Compared to Previous Years
KB Financial Group will attend the world's largest mobile telecommunications exhibition, Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, again this year. This contrasts with other financial companies that are either not participating or significantly reducing their visit scale compared to previous years. As KB Financial Group has identified artificial intelligence (AI) as a future growth engine, this move is interpreted as an effort to showcase innovative financial services that combine finance and ICT.
According to KB Financial Group on the 24th, Lee Chang-kwon, head of the Digital and IT division at KB Financial Group who leads the group's overall digital and AI strategies, along with other staff members, will visit MWC 2025 held in Barcelona, Spain, from March 3 to 6 (local time). The theme of this year's MWC 2025 is "Converge. Connect. Create," with six key keywords: ▲5G Inside ▲Connect X ▲ AI+ ▲Corporate Digital Innovation ▲Game Changer ▲Digital DNA.
The size of KB Financial Group's delegation is expected to be around 30 people, similar to previous years. A KB Financial Group official stated, "Last year, the head of the digital division also attended, and this year they will attend as usual. Since we are the only bank operating a budget phone business and are strategically growing the AI sector, we plan to organize a delegation of a similar scale to last year."
This approach by KB Financial Group contrasts with other financial companies. In particular, Shinhan Financial Group, which competes for the leading bank position, had Chairman Jin Ok-dong lead the affiliate presidents to attend last year, but this year, neither Chairman Jin nor the staff will participate. Hana Financial Group will not attend this year either, following last year’s absence. Woori Financial Group and NH Financial Group plan to participate only at the staff level.
A banking industry insider explained, "In recent years, it has been a trend for heads of financial companies to attend events like CES or MWC to discover new business opportunities. However, this year, the outlook for the banking industry is not very bright, and due to many internal and external political and economic variables, the atmosphere has changed to focus on strengthening internal capabilities rather than external activities."
Despite this situation, KB Financial Group’s attendance at MWC 2025 is interpreted as a strategic move to strengthen AI competitiveness, considering AI as a future growth engine. In fact, at the end of last year, KB Financial Group expanded its financial AI centers to two through an organizational restructuring. This move runs counter to the general trend of organizational slimming, reflecting the judgment that growing the AI sector is essential to enhance financial competitiveness. Notably, this reflects the will of Yang Jong-hee, chairman of KB Financial Group, who has requested leading the digital financial ecosystem with generative AI.
Lee Hwan-joo, newly appointed president of KB Kookmin Bank this year, is also known to have a strong interest in AI. He plans to use AI as a driving force to enhance competitiveness to maintain the leading bank position. Since his inauguration, President Lee has been convening executives for discussion meetings on the first and third Saturdays of each month, and this month’s topic is reportedly related to digital and AI. Kookmin Bank is developing AI-integrated services such as "Generative AI Financial Consultation Agent," "PB Agent," and "RM Agent." Recently, Kookmin Bank recruited Kim Byung-jip, head of Financial AI Center 1, formerly of LG AI Research Institute, and Lee Kyung-jong, head of Financial AI Center 2, formerly of NCSoft, which is closely related to these efforts. The group is working on building a generative AI platform encompassing finance, securities, and insurance at the group level, not just the bank.
Meanwhile, Kookmin Bank’s investment in information technology in 2023 amounted to 568.5 billion KRW, the highest among other banks such as Shinhan Bank (378.8 billion KRW) and Woori Bank (408.3 billion KRW).
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