Korea's flagship AI event. Sovereign LLM efforts, semiconductor AI, and chaebol AI strategy.
KOTRA's AI Korea Forum is the trade-promotion arm of the South Korean government's AI industry showcase, held in Seoul each spring in partnership with the Ministry of Science and ICT. The Forum sits at the intersection of startup commercialisation and enterprise procurement, convening Korean AI firms — including Naver HyperCLOVA, Kakao AI, KT, and SK Telecom — with international buyers from ASEAN, the Middle East, and Europe seeking Korean AI solutions under government-supported export programmes.
The Korean AI ecosystem is notably distinct from its neighbours: the country's chaebol structure means that major AI investments pass through Samsung, LG, SK, Hyundai, and Lotte first, creating a vendor market dominated by in-house AI platforms and captive cloud providers. KOTRA's Forum provides a rare structured window into second-tier Korean AI startups — particularly in vision AI, speech recognition, and AI-assisted healthcare diagnostics — that are difficult to reach through international channels.
For AIMenta clients evaluating Korean AI vendors as part of their APAC supplier diversification strategy, or for Korean enterprises looking to benchmark against regional peers, this Forum is the most cost-efficient entry point into the Seoul AI ecosystem.