KITA hosted “Digital Initiative Seminar 2023”

Next year’s digital marketing needs an emphasis on utilizing omni-channel data

The future of the digital economy should be prepared by adopting a data-based economy

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) and the Federation of Korean Information Industries (FKII) co-hosted “Digital Initiative Seminar” on December 6^th at the Trade Tower in Samseong-dong. This seminar was organized to discuss next year’s trends of digital businesses and propose deregulated policies.

Hyeong-taek Kim, the CEO of Digital Initiative Group, delivered a presentation on the anticipated trends of next year’s digital marketing and communications and said, “Companies will scale down their budget earmarked for marketing due to the recent economic slowdown.” He also pointed out, “Advertising companies and especially those specializing in digital marketing should devise new methods of digital marketing as Google is scheduled to limit the use of cookies in Chrome to ensure the integrity of personal information protection.” Mr. Kim also prospected, “Next year’s digital marketing will require a strategy to compile data on customers’ tastes by increasing engagement with them through omni-channel marketing activities” and added, “Specifically, the use of gamification will become increasingly important, which is useful for collecting patterns of customers’ behavior.”

Marn-ki Jeong, the Vice Chairman of KITA, highlighted, “We are witnessing an acceleration of digital transformation of key industries with the potential to affect our lives in the future, along with a transition to a data-based economy despite a global-scale economic slowdown.” He also added, “The demand of semiconductors essential for developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will see a constant increase, which serve as key apparatuses in realizing a data-based economy.” He also said, “We are also seeing the development of AI technologies at a much-accelerated pace.”

Vice Chairman Jeong anticipated, “Better AI technologies have now enabled faster-than-ever calculations performed by AI to a level on par with calculations performed by humans.” He specifically pointed out, “The use of Multi Modal AI* will spread to multiple industrial sectors in the near future.”

* Multi Modal AI: A type of AI that can read human emotions, which can simultaneously learn and process stimuli from multiple channels

Chelsea Chen, the co-founder of Emotech - a British company specializing in Multi-Modal AI technology, said, “I am focusing on Korea as a country with high potential of leading the Multi-Modal AI technology sector in the future.” As grounds for her prediction, she cited Korea’s strength in the creative industry sector, including the country’s ability of producing TV programmes popular among the global audience. However, the co-founder also pointed out, “Despite such potential, companies in Korea are facing challenges due to a lack of AI experts and excessive regulations.”

Ms. Chen cited an example of how the introduction of AI can change a fate of a company. “When multiple Japanese life insurance companies went bankrupt due to aggravating profitability during the latter half of the 2010s, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance managed to survive after introducing IBM Watson,” she said. Ms. Chen also mentioned by providing statistics on how the introduction of AI can boost employment. She explained, “According to a survey conducted in Japan, hiring increased by 2.2% when one robot is introduced per 1,000 workers,” and added, “According to another survey conducted in Spain, Spanish companies that introduced industrial robots between 1998 and 2016 has seen a 50% increase in hiring, whereas companies that chose to do otherwise have seen a 20% decline in hiring.”

“These examples show companies that introduced robots and those managed to achieve successful digital transformation are not only able to boost productivity but also significantly increase their competitiveness by being equipped with the capacity to provide personalized services tailored to clients’ needs,” Ms. Chen said.

Mr. Dong-in Jang, the CEO of AIBB LAB, who delivered a presentation during the seminar on “AI and business strategies” mentioned, “AI is a smarter form of Microsoft Excel and AI exists wherever data is available.” He said, “Adopting AI does not have to be big from the beginning” and suggested, “Starting off with things that can be changed with little effort will be a better idea, such as introducing AI in assisting customer service call center representatives.” Mr. Jang highlighted, “It is imperative to refer to success cases of digital transformation carried out by companies engaged in the same type of business.”

Additionally, Mr. Jang recommended, “Rather than scouting an expert without any experience in the company, it will be a better choice to train internal members of the company for the sake of a) ensuring the efficiency of data linking and the use of compiled data and b) ensuring seamless collaboration with other employees in the company.” The CEO added, “Such benefits will eclipse the shortcomings of training existing employees, who may lack professional knowledge on digital transformation to a certain extent.”

Hee-won Yang, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability, delivered a presentation on “Sustainable business operation through digital-based environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).” The researcher mentioned, “Risks that corporates took seriously in the past were mostly financial risks” and added, “This trend changed recently and corporates are taking non-financial risks more seriously, including environmental and social risks.”

The researcher specifically highlighted, “According to MSCI data compiled by Morgan Stanley, it was revealed that companies with high ESG ratings have lower inherent risks arising from the nature of the business they specialize in, along with lower structural risks compared to companies with low ESG ratings” and added, “Korean companies should be aware of the importance of ESG from the perspective of lowering and managing risks.”

“Although it is fortunate that companies are starting to understand the importance of ESG and digital transformation lately, they are considering these as two separate targets, which result in designing two different strategies.” The researcher pointed out, “Such an approach is resulting in inefficiencies as this inevitably leads to multiple and overlapping implementation of company-wide work geared towards making improvements to work processes.”

The senior researcher pointed out, “Adopting digital transformation to ESG projects may produce synergy in the future.” The researcher also said, “This will lead to an accumulation of relevant ESG data, which can be used in the future whenever needed” and added, “Even ESG projects that were impossible to be implemented in the past, due to a lack of means to accumulate data, can now be carried out by taking advantage of AI technologies and data.”

[This news is provided by Korea Trade News]