M.AX Expands Beyond Manufacturing to Management... Government Launches 'AI Agent' Project

Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Holds Joint Launch for Industrial AI Solution and AI Agent Projects
AI Applications Expand to Corporate Decision-Making Domains

At the joint launch ceremony for the AI Agent-AI Solution business held on the 23rd at the El Tower Grand Ballroom in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, Sungyoul Kim, Director General of Industrial Growth at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (fourth from the left in the front row), and Yoonjong Jun, President of the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (fifth from the left in the front row), along with government and institutional officials, are participating in the launch ceremony. Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The government is expanding the scope of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, which had previously been limited to manufacturing sites, to encompass all aspects of corporate operations, including production planning, supply chain management, safety and environment, and product design. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to accelerate the Manufacturing AI Transformation (M.AX) by newly launching the "AI Agent" project, which supports corporate decision-making based on data accumulated from manufacturing processes.

On the 23rd, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it held a joint launch ceremony for the "Industrial AI Solution" and "AI Agent" projects at EL Tower in Yangjae, Seoul. The event was attended by over 100 participants, including representatives from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), manufacturing companies, and AI-specialized firms.

The government views the recent global AI competition as having progressed beyond technology development to the stage of industrial field application. In particular, it believes that manufacturing is a sector where the introduction of AI directly results in increased productivity and strengthened competitiveness, and that the scope of AI use is expanding from manufacturing sites to the entirety of corporate operations. The Ministry considers data accumulated in manufacturing settings and the know-how of skilled workers as core assets in the AI era and plans to leverage these to enhance industrial competitiveness.

Since its launch in September last year, the M.AX Alliance has grown into a system of 11 divisions with participation from approximately 1,500 institutions. Building on this, the Ministry intends to fully pursue projects that apply AI not only to manufacturing sites but also to all aspects of corporate operations.

The "Industrial AI Solution" project is designed to rapidly apply proven AI models to manufacturing sites. By fine-tuning models owned by AI-specialized companies to suit similar manufacturing processes, the project completed tasks for about 30 manufacturing companies last year. Achievements included improved accuracy in scrap metal classification and enhanced quality prediction for heat exchangers. This year, the project will continue, also targeting around 30 companies. The budget for this year is 12.8 billion won.

The newly launched "AI Agent" project aims to support decision-making using AI in seven upstream and downstream areas, including production planning, supply chain management, safety and environment, and product design, going beyond the manufacturing process itself. For this year's call for proposals, about 90 companies submitted applications, and 10 companies, including Sungwoo Hitech and Daeduck Electronics, were ultimately selected. The project budget is 6 billion won.

The Ministry plans to maximize synergy between the two projects by linking their data. At the launch ceremony, KIAT, the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, and Pohang Technopark signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote the interconnection and utilization of manufacturing data. Through this, the Ministry intends to continuously expand the scope of data utilization by applying manufacturing data accumulated from the Industrial AI Solution project to the AI Agent project and subsequent initiatives.

The Ministry is also concurrently working to digitize the experience and know-how of skilled workers through the "Manufacturing Master Tacit Knowledge" project, which was included in this year's supplementary budget. Going forward, the Ministry plans to establish a foundation for the systematic collection and management of high-quality manufacturing data.

Kim Sungyeol, Director of Industrial Growth at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated, "The outcome of the AI war will ultimately be determined at industrial sites where added value is created," adding, "We will actively support the expansion of M.AX beyond manufacturing sites into decision-making areas such as business planning and production management so that the entirety of corporate activities can be innovated."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.