Korea Small Business Institute: Explainable AI Is Both an Opportunity and a Tool for SME Innovation and Growth

Report Published: "The Rise of Explainable AI and Policy Directions for SMEs"

The Korea Small Business Institute announced on July 31 that it had published a report titled "The Rise of Explainable AI and Policy Directions for SMEs."

Kim Kiman, Associate Research Fellow at the Korea Small Business Institute, suggested in the report that explainable AI (XAI) should be recognized as a promising technology and business field for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). He emphasized the need to strengthen the foundation for XAI implementation and foster specialized companies in this sector.

The report noted that it is important to pay attention to the growing emphasis on explainability as one of the main principles for ensuring safety and accountability in the use of AI both domestically and internationally. XAI is an effort to shift the paradigm in order to increase the transparency of AI systems, and it refers to technologies and methods that enable users to understand the decision-making processes of AI systems. The global market for XAI is expected to grow rapidly, with projections estimating it could reach approximately 65 trillion won by 2034.

The report recommended several policy directions in light of the ongoing development of XAI and the anticipated rapid expansion of the global market. These include strengthening the foundation for implementation, fostering specialized companies, advancing SME crisis management models, and securing tools for diagnosing the potential impact of new policies. The report particularly stressed the importance of procedurally incorporating XAI into AI-based business and public sector decision-making processes for SMEs. It also highlighted the need to foster specialized companies for the development and dissemination of XAI services in various fields such as manufacturing. Additionally, efforts are required to secure systems for the preemptive prediction and diagnosis of changes in the SME ecosystem.

Kim Kiman explained, "It is necessary to secure diagnostic tools that can assess the potential impact of new policy designs by applying XAI," and emphasized, "Through this, it will be possible to provide stakeholders with reliable scientific evidence for policy formulation."