The world is once again facing a "crisis." The Middle East situation has been shaken dramatically, including tensions between the United States and Iran, creating cracks in global oil and gas supply chains. Oil prices are soaring, simultaneously squeezing corporate cost structures and household spending power. The shadows of inflation and economic slowdown are deepening again, and the global economy has entered a phase where it must navigate yet another round of rough waves.
Ironically, we hold in one hand the cold reality of crisis and in the other the dazzling advances of generative artificial intelligence and robotics. AI analyzes vast amounts of data in an instant to predict the direction of the economy. Yet in the face of nonlinear events such as war, historical data is no longer valid. In reality, the global economy has always convulsed outside the bounds of AI's predictions. At this juncture, we naturally arrive at the question: "In an era of AI and ultra-fast algorithms, what still makes humans irreplaceable?"
AI excels at learning from data and presenting the safest, highest-probability "correct answer." But the history of business — especially the history of overcoming crises — has never moved according to probability. From the foreign exchange crisis to the pandemic and today's Middle East turmoil, the depth of each crisis has always exceeded forecasts. Still, companies have weathered these storms not through mere numbers and scenarios but through leadership determined to endure to the end. It was the "human decision" standing behind the numbers that ultimately separated fates.
How a leader's decision is realized on the industrial front line is vividly illustrated in the growth trajectories of KOSDAQ-listed companies. The "KOSDAQ CEO Challenge Stories" published by the KOSDAQ Association contains those fierce records. Companies that started as ventures armed with a single innovative technology and knocked on the door of global markets never had a smooth starting line. Even in situations where AI would have given up early, declaring a "99% probability of failure," these entrepreneurs bet everything on the slimmest odds. Courage that may have seemed reckless — rising again amid insolvency crises and repeated failures — created the remarkable growth stories of KOSDAQ today.
Looking back at history, technological leaps have always coincided with crises. The oil shocks spurred high-efficiency energy technologies, and the financial crisis became a catalyst that accelerated digital finance and fintech innovation. At each new starting line, there was always someone's weighty decision and responsibility. In the coming AI era, the capability future generations truly need is not the skill to avoid uncertainty but the courage to stand tall against it. Getting the given correct answer is now something machines do better. What is demanded of humans is the "resilience" to rise again after stepping on wrong answers.
Today's compound crisis poses a weighty question to young people and aspiring entrepreneurs: "What opportunity will you create amid this crisis?" We must think intensely about how to pass on to the next generation — not just how to use AI, but the entrepreneurial spirit of KOSDAQ, which has been built by accumulating failures as assets.
What young people standing at the crossroads of starting a business or seeking employment need is a sense of responsibility and passion that machines cannot imitate. Machines learn from data, but humans grow from failure. Machines calculate crises through probability, but humans break through with conviction. I hope to see more entrepreneurs who use AI as a tool without becoming subordinate to it, who carve out their own paths and create opportunities amid crisis. Ultimately, what determines the future is not the level of technology but humanity's great choice of how to use it.
