The AI autonomous manufacturing business, which integrates robots and equipment based on artificial intelligence (AI) into the manufacturing process to realize advanced production and autonomy in key industries, is being promoted in earnest.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on the 17th that it has begun the selection process for the 10 leading AI autonomous manufacturing projects, which were the core policies of the 'AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0' announced on May 8th of last month.

Since the announcement of the 'AI Autonomous Manufacturing Strategy 1.0', the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has unofficially discovered more than 40 candidate projects that could become the top 10 leading projects through on-site investigations, meetings with local governments and research institutes, etc.

The candidate businesses include all of Korea's representative cutting-edge and major industries, including semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding, secondary batteries, machinery, displays, steel, textiles, and home appliances.

Based on this, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy began an official demand survey on June 5, and plans to finalize the 10 leading projects in August through the official demand survey (until the end of June) → task announcement (July) → final evaluation (August).

During this process, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to hold an AI Autonomous Manufacturing Alliance launch ceremony in July and disclose a list of candidate projects.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to provide customized support for the development and establishment of optimized software (industrial AI), hardware (robots), and integrated systems (SI) for each company for selected businesses, and plans to invest a budget of more than 10 billion won this year alone.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to expand the support target to more than 200 by 2028 based on this year's performance.r />
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a meeting on June 17 with 13 researchers who will lead the spread of AI autonomous manufacturing.

At this event, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy requested active participation from each researcher and close cooperation among researchers, and exchanged various opinions for the successful expansion of AI autonomous manufacturing.

An official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy emphasized, “In order to overcome the challenges facing our manufacturing industry, such as changes in population structure and declining productivity, innovation in the manufacturing production function through AI autonomous manufacturing is not an option but a necessity,” and “We will strongly promote pilot projects to lead the great transformation of the Korean manufacturing industry.”