Ministry of Trade Industry and Resources

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR, Minister JK Kim) held the Manufacturing AI Transformation (M.AX) CEO Hackathon in Sejong on September 21, 2026, bringing together around 100 participants from manufacturing and AI companies and related organizations. Participants included around 50 CEOs from regional industrial complexes; AI companies; MINI Alliance members; and representatives from the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation (KICOX) and the Korea Planning & Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT).

The event was designed for CEOs of manufacturers in regional industrial complexes to identify the most urgent problems in their own factories and work with AI companies and experts to turn them into deployable AI transformation (AX) projects. For manufacturers, AX goes beyond simply introducing AI solutions. It starts with deciding which on-site problems—such as equipment failures or shortages of skilled workers—to address first and where to concentrate personnel and investment. MOTIR organized the hackathon in recognition that CEO-level decisions and leadership are critical to making those choices and driving organizational change.

Ahead of the hackathon, Minister Kim delivered a keynote address on the role of CEOs in the AI era. He stressed that AI transformation goes beyond adopting technology and is a management issue that requires companies to redesign how they work. He explained that it is ultimately the CEO’s role to bring together data scattered across departments, reconcile competing interests, and set company-wide priorities. Minister Kim then proposed the “3As”—Adapt, Adept and Adopt—as three principles to guide CEOs in the AI era. He emphasized that CEOs need to take the lead throughout the process: recognizing how change is unfolding, understanding AI, and putting it into practice.

Following the keynote address, leading manufacturers shared their experience implementing AX at manufacturing sites. HD Hyundai Samho presented examples of AX in shipbuilding operations, giving participating CEOs specific ideas that could be applied to their own processes. Ohsung Steel described how it converted equipment operating know-how accumulated by individual skilled workers into data that AI could learn from and used AI simulations to shorten training time for new workers.

Participants then split into 10 teams to discuss the challenges their companies face at manufacturing sites and the AX projects they want to develop. Working with AI companies and experts, each team then developed concrete solutions. The teams went beyond proposing ideas and examined which AI technologies to use, which processes to target, the scale of investment, expected benefits, and whether the projects could be linked to follow-up support, including government programs. The key AX projects discussed focused on areas directly tied to manufacturing productivity, including converting skilled workers’ tacit manufacturing know-how into data for AI training; replacing manual visual inspection with AI vision inspection; using predictive maintenance to detect equipment anomalies in advance; and applying physical AI and autonomous manufacturing to industries such as shipbuilding.

Team 6, comprising Ohsung Steel, Shinhan Ceramic, TFS, Busung Steel, Daechang, NAVER Cloud, and Dfinite, won the top prize for its proposal to expand AX through general-purpose manufacturing agents in the Banwol-Sihwa Industrial Complex.

An Excellence Award went to Team 3, comprising HD Hyundai Samho, JK Heavy Industries, MokwonENG, Taejin, Kosteel, and Geosoft. The team proposed advancing AX in shipbuilding processes in the Daebul Industrial Complex and extending it across the value chain to large, medium-sized, and small companies.

Team 8, comprising Dong Myung Industry, LOTTE INEOS Chemical, SUNGIL, DK Materials, Hanjin Chemical, KEMP, Neolab, and PDTech, also received an Excellence Award for its proposal on AX for predictive maintenance and process automation in the Ulsan and Yeosu industrial complexes.

An Encouragement Award went to Team 5, comprising HWASHIN, HIVAC, PHG, PXA, and OnePredict. The team proposed using simulations to generate synthetic data representing abnormal conditions to support quality prediction and process-condition optimization in automotive parts manufacturing.

Team 7, comprising GOMOTEC, Sejin Valve Industrial, Mt.H Control Valves, MYTEC, Sewon V&E, SUN PRECISION, and DX Solutions, also received an Encouragement Award for its proposal on AX for the marine valve industry, including automation of design and cost estimation.

MOTIR plans to link promising AX projects identified at the hackathon with government support programs and facilitate follow-up demonstrations for application at manufacturing sites. AX models that have shown positive results at manufacturing sites will be applied to similar processes and expanded to other industrial complexes. MOTIR also plans to continue expanding manufacturing AX support that responds to needs on the factory floor, drawing on the company-specific challenges and needs identified through the hackathon.