Samsung Group has declared an "AI transformation" to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) into all operations across its affiliates. Following an order from Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee that the group "must completely change the way it works and its organizational DNA," all Samsung affiliates have embarked on a sweeping AI journey to innovate their operations with AI at the center.
Samsung said Tuesday that it will pursue an AI transformation (AX) across all affiliates, introducing AI throughout its operations and redesigning its organizational management around AI.
Under a policy that AX will be led by top executives, Samsung will hold an "AX Bootcamp" this month at the Samsung Human Resources Development Center to train about 50 affiliate presidents, the first such program in its history. After two days of training, the executives plan to declare an "AX Vision" to reorient Samsung's DNA around AI.
With Samsung Group's declaration of an AI transformation, about 50 top executives at the management front line will lead the way in instilling "AI DNA" into the organizational culture and work methods. Believing that "the AI literacy of the chief executive officer (CEO) determines the success or failure of AX," Samsung plans to transform the constitution of CEOs, who hold responsibility and authority, around AI first, accelerating AX across all affiliates. In addition, by August 12, some 2,300 executives across all affiliates will undergo a three-day, two-night training program to internalize the new AI DNA, and AI training for all of its roughly 280,000 employees will be completed within the year.
AI is rapidly evolving beyond generative tools that simply answer search queries into "agentic AI" that can even perform humans' professional work. Samsung's assessment is that companies that fail to use AI across their operations to boost productivity could fall behind in global competition. In his New Year's address this year, Chairman Jay Y. Lee called for a rapid push toward AX, saying that "AI must be integrated into the entire work value chain, from research and development (R&D) to production, marketing and support." But there has also been internal reflection that sufficient change has not followed.
"Samsung anticipated the digital age in the 1990s and built up its mobile phone, semiconductor and display businesses, and during the mobile transition of the 2010s, it leaped into a global company through Galaxy smartphones and the opening of its operating system (OS)," an industry official said. "Samsung, which has captured opportunities for new leaps amid change and crisis, has now begun in earnest the challenge of seizing and leading the opportunities of the AI era."
Samsung's AX will proceed as an all-out effort in line with the "AX Vision" to be declared after the top executives complete their group training this month. The AX Vision is expected to reflect a sense of crisis that, as the global industrial paradigm is reorganized around AI, any company that fails to change the way it works and thinks could lose its competitiveness in an instant.
To realize the AX Vision, Samsung will adopt external generative AI services across all affiliates this month, including Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. Samsung is the first major conglomerate to introduce external AI into the operations of all its affiliates.
Samsung's AI transformation goes beyond using generative AI tools in work. The emphasis is on making AI not a new technology or auxiliary means, but the core infrastructure of management innovation. Through AI, Samsung plans to actively use AI not only for office and planning innovation such as software and marketing, but also for field operations. Its strategy is to apply AI to eight major business areas — development, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, sales, service and management support — to boost productivity and even change the way decisions are made.
Alongside employee training, Samsung will establish dedicated AI units at all affiliates. These units will develop AX strategies tailored to the characteristics of each affiliate. They will also prepare data management guidelines and operational management measures so that external AI can be used smoothly in work. Samsung also plans to create an organization dedicated to AI talent training.
