LG Group (003550) has become the first Korean company to join SAP's Field Deployed Engineer (FDE) program. Under the program, LG CNS (064400) will jointly develop AI technologies with SAP and dispatch developers directly to LG Innotek (011070) to build an AI service tailored for the unit. LG CNS is also pushing to integrate SAP's AI agent "Joule" into its robot learning platform.
Nae Han-shin, Executive Vice President of LG CNS's Enterprise Solutions Business Division, disclosed the plans in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando on Tuesday local time. LG CNS is the only Korean company to have set up an exhibition booth at SAP Sapphire 2026, SAP's annual conference.
According to LG CNS, SAP is currently running the FDE program targeting LG Innotek together with LG CNS. It marks SAP's first FDE engagement with a Korean company and only the second across the Asia-Pacific region. FDE refers to a practice in which an IT services firm deploys developers directly into a client company to identify IT-related issues and build solutions.
The project is designed for SAP to assess LG Innotek's AI needs and develop an AI service specific to the company. LG CNS will work alongside SAP to diagnose areas where LG Innotek requires AI services and develop new AI capabilities. LG Group and SAP held a workshop last month and formally launched the project.
LG CNS assesses that the FDE engagement reaffirms the close partnership between LG Group and SAP. "FDE is how SAP expands the range of AI services tailored to individual industries," Nae said. "Since it is not feasible to run FDE for every client, SAP carries out the program with its key partner companies."
LG CNS signaled that it will continue to pursue AI-related businesses with SAP. "Hyun Shin-kyun, CEO of LG CNS, met directly with SAP's management in the second half of last year to discuss AI collaboration," Nae said.
Specifically, the two companies are pursuing cooperation to strengthen their robotics capabilities. They are exploring ways to connect SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and the Joule AI agent with LG CNS's robot transformation (RX) platform "Physical Works." Through this, the two companies plan to jointly bolster their technological competitiveness in applying physical AI to industrial sites.
