‘The era of AI agents is upon us,’ Google Cloud Korea chief says

Korean companies want to invest in and adopt AI agents to enhance their productivity and improve data management, according to Google Cloud Korea.

Google Cloud Korea’s Country Director Chi Ki-sung at a press briefing for “Google Cloud Summit Seoul 2024” in central Seoul on Wednesday. [GOOGLE CLOUD]

Korean companies want to invest in and adopt AI agents to enhance their productivity and improve data management, according to Google Cloud Korea.

“Based on our internal survey, 75 percent of Korean companies have started to invest in generative AI, but only 10 percent of them reported seeing returns on investment,” said Google Cloud Korea’s Country Director Chi Ki-sung at a press briefing for “Google Cloud Summit Seoul 2024” in central Seoul on Wednesday.

“When asked about their top investment priorities, management support — such as employees’ upskilling — and data and knowledge management were highlighted as key areas. This aligns with global trends, suggesting that we are currently in an optimal position.”

Chi predicts that companies capable of effectively utilizing these AI agents to meet their specific needs will be the first to achieve boosts in productivity and profitability.

In Korea, companies from diverse sectors such as health care, games, e-commerce and electronics are utilizing Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s enterprise AI platform.

Vertex AI provides over 130 generative AI models, such as Gemini and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, for clients to shape and manage models tailored to their tasks.

“The era of AI agents is upon us,” Chi said. “These agents will specialize in various tasks, such as security, customer interactions, employee productivity, creativity and even code development. The companies that can effectively create, combine and enhance these agents into super agents will likely lead the way to success.”

Although Chi did not detail specific numbers, a few hundred Korean enterprises are utilizing Google Cloud, including Samsung Electronics, LG AI Research, HD Hyundai, NCsoft, Kurly, Kakao Healthcare and Coway.

“Some of you may already be using the Kurly app, where we’ve been testing an AI search function with a small percentage of users. This has led to an increase in sales, and we plan to roll this out to the entire user base soon. The proofs of concept we’re doing now aren’t just to verify if the technology works — they’re intended for real use. This is a significant change. The 10 percent figure that I mentioned earlier will likely change significantly if we conduct the same survey next year at this time.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]