Big tech giants say the country is a key front in the enterprise AI race, partnering with Samsung Electronics and CJ Olive Young.
As global AI companies compete to capture the enterprise AI market, Google announced Tuesday it will deepen its AI partnership with a South Korean company, making the country a key battleground in the global AI race.
”In this period of AI transformation, South Korea has become a battleground for all major companies driving global AI innovation,” said Yoon Koo, country managing director of Google Korea, at a press conference for Google AI for Business 2026, hosted by the tech giant at the Seoul Shilla Hotel in central Seoul’s Jongno district.
Yoon cited Google’s internal research among Korean users that found that 76% turn to AI-powered search and multimodal search tools first when seeking initial ideas and inspiration for new products and services.
“This shows that Google AI is evolving beyond marketing innovation to support business transformation across the business cycle,” Yoon said.
Google AI for Business 2026 is a three-day event showcasing the company’s latest enterprise AI applications designed to help companies transform their operations.
Ruth Sun, head of Google Cloud Korea, also highlighted collaborations with Samsung Electronics and CJ Olive Young as examples of Google’s enterprise AI strategy in action.
Google Cloud announced Monday that it will provide its enterprise AI platform Gemini Enterprise to Samsung’s device experience division.
Sun said that when Samsung decided to adopt an AI platform, the semiconductor company evaluated everything from performance to security to return on investment. Employees also tested the platform themselves and shared their feedback.
Describing the partnership with CJ Olive Young, Sun said merchandising teams with no software development experience are building their own marketing agents based on the company’s security governance framework, while store employees manage inventory in real-time using text, images and voice input.
Global AI companies have recently increased competition for the enterprise AI market, which is seen as more profitable than the consumer sector.
Throughout Tuesday’s event, Google reiterated that it is the only technology company to offer a complete AI stack, from its proprietary Tensor Processing Unit to its Gemini AI model.
Sun pointed out that Korean companies have moved beyond the stage of questioning whether AI is effective, and are focusing on how quickly they can make AI a core growth engine.
To use AI models efficiently, minimize illusions, and maximize return on investment, companies need to understand and manage not just the AI models themselves, but the entire underlying technology stack, he added.
Written by Hong Sang-ji [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter using generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
