[Economy 365]

More than 90% of major domestic manufacturing companies responded that artificial intelligence transformation (AX) across the entire supply chain, including partner firms, is crucial to enhancing manufacturing competitiveness.

According to a survey of 200 responding companies among the top 800 manufacturing firms by sales conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), productivity improvement was the most cited expected effect of supply chain AI transformation at 48.8%, followed by supply chain risk response and cost reduction.

Companies supporting the AI transformation of their partners stood at 45%, with 39.5% running pilot projects and 5.5% having entered the implementation stage.

Among support activities, data linkage and standardization in production, quality, facilities, and logistics accounted for the highest share at 34.4%.

The biggest obstacle cited was the lack of digital foundations and AI utilization capabilities among partner firms.

*This article was produced using AI audio.