"Rather than trying to compete with AI, we must first adopt an attitude of using it actively and proactively, defining it as an excellent tool and means," Nexon Japan CEO Lee Jung-hun said.
Lee made the remarks Monday as a speaker at the opening ceremony of the "2026 Nexon Developers Conference (NDC 26)," held at the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. "AI is a revolution in creation and computation that lowers the cost of generating and analyzing information and content to near zero," he said.
"What AI does well is tasks with predetermined answers, but empathy and emotional connection are domains only humans can handle," Lee stressed. "In an era when everyone holds the same tools, what makes the difference is the insight and judgment about what to create, and that insight and judgment come from a deep understanding of and empathy with users."
Kang Dae-hyun, co-CEO of Nexon Korea, who took the stage as keynote speaker, said, "As AI rapidly lowers the barriers to implementation, the center of gravity in competition is shifting from the level of implementation to the depth of 'Context.'" Kang explained that "Context" refers to all the assets accumulated around a game, such as the know-how and instincts developers have built up, the relationships and memories users have formed, and the culture of the community.
Kang stressed that such assets accumulate into "context capital" over time, while a "compound interest of context" arises as contexts connect with one another. "The sum of life spent together with users cannot be replicated by any competitor or any AI," he said emphatically. "On top of Artificial Intelligence that anyone can buy and use, we must thickly build another AI—Accumulated Intelligence."
NDC 26, running for three days through Wednesday, covers 51 sessions across a total of nine fields related to game development. From AI to planning and operation know-how to data analysis, it broadly presents the latest trends and practical experience in the gaming industry.
