en.Wedoany.com Reported - SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won recently stated that companies should accelerate their artificial intelligence transformation (AX), emphasizing that AI applications need to evolve from personal productivity tools into a structural force connecting overall organizational performance. Chey made these remarks at the "2026 New Icheon Forum" held from the 11th to the 13th at the SKMS Research Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. The forum was themed "Disruptive Innovation by AI, The Great Transformation to AX-Centric Management."
As the first step in promoting AX, Chey proposed that the prerequisite is accurately understanding the current business activities of the company, with the key lying in precisely defining work and clarifying which processes AI can innovate and how. He also pointed out that daily data accumulation is necessary to lay the foundation for real-time problem identification and improvement.
Chey particularly emphasized the need to evolve "My AI" into "Our AI" and proposed introducing a "one person, one agent" model. He noted that while over 90% of members currently use AI, it is necessary to move beyond individual usage and translate work outcomes into performance for the entire organization. He stated that he himself would create not just one but countless AI agents to communicate with the management and members of each subsidiary, envisioning dozens of chairman avatars entering each company to listen to opinions and collaborate with other agents. Chey defined the essence of AX as "Operations Improvement (O/I)," meaning defining work content and changing work methods. He believes AX is the best means to enhance the execution capability of operations improvement, and that the power to overcome challenges and seize future opportunities ultimately comes from operations improvement capabilities. Therefore, it is essential to solidify basic skills and execution through AX-based operations improvement. At the forum, Chey analyzed global AI industry trends and SK Group's competitiveness. He predicted that the semiconductor industry, based on memory technology, initiated the AI era, followed by a large-scale transformation of energy, data centers, and communication networks to meet global AI computing demand. In the future, various application industries generating intelligence will grow accordingly. He evaluated that SK Group possesses the memory, data center infrastructure, energy, and electrification capabilities required for the AI era in a full-stack manner, and such comprehensive companies are rare.
Meanwhile, he urged management to maintain a sense of crisis, pointing out that if AX is not implemented at full speed and comprehensively now, the current opportunities will not easily return. Since 2019, Chey has been promoting innovation with AI as a key agenda at the Icheon Forum. SK Group, from top management to working-level staff, has continuously discussed ways to enhance global competitiveness through AI and digital technologies, but this is the first time a three-day intensive discussion has been held on the single topic of AI. SK Group management generally agreed at the forum that business processes should be fundamentally redesigned, much like when energy transitioned from steam engines to electricity. They shared a sense of crisis that innovation must be led by management first and resolved to start small, execute, and then rapidly scale up.
During the forum, an AI agent named "Sky" summarized and published management discussions in real time. In panel discussions, an AI panel composed of consultants, executives, and members in their 50s interacted in real time with on-site participants. A SK Group official stated that this forum was an important meeting where management's strategic vision and the spontaneous execution will of all members merged, establishing the group's AX direction. Based on the discussions, management and members will jointly accelerate the great AI transformation.
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