Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly spreading across products and solutions in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. As engineers actively embrace AI to solve design and operational challenges, the shift from experimental to full-scale production is becoming increasingly evident.

According to the fifth annual Avnet Insights survey released by global technology distribution company Avnet, 77% of engineers worldwide responded that market conditions for products and solutions that apply AI have improved.

The Asia-Pacific region, in particular, is showing an adoption rate that exceeds the global average, with China and Japan leading regional AI innovation with different strategies.

China is leading the rapid expansion of AI, deploying it on a large scale across industries, including automotive, industrial automation, and smart manufacturing.

Japan, on the other hand, continues to achieve stable growth through an approach that prioritizes reliability and long product life cycles.

While this survey focused on major markets such as China and Japan, it also offers important insights for the Korean market, which is implementing the Basic AI Act and embarking on large-scale investment.

“The trend of AI moving from the experimental stage to the production stage in the global market is an important criterion for establishing Korea’s advanced technology strategy,” said Kim Yong-chun, CEO of Avnet Korea. “We must actively utilize global benchmarks to maintain competitiveness in key industries such as semiconductors and automobiles.”

According to a survey, 56% of engineers worldwide are already shipping products that incorporate AI, a 33% increase from the previous year.

The main areas of application were process automation (42%), predictive maintenance (28%), and defect/abnormality detection (28%).

Additionally, 64% of respondents perceive edge AI and machine learning (ML) as equally important, highlighting the importance of multimodal AI.It shows that the importance of is growing.

Amidst this, data quality and ongoing maintenance issues have been identified as major challenges along with the spread of AI.

Engineers in the Asia-Pacific region are turning these challenges into competitive advantages by focusing on model optimization and strengthening data analysis capabilities.

CEO Kim emphasized, “In Korea’s AI environment, which prioritizes safety and trust, data quality and maintenance are even more important,” and “Avnet Korea will continue to serve as a bridge connecting global AI trends with Korean innovation.”