'AI race shifts from building models to rebuilding companies'

Wrtn AX CEO Park Min-jun speaks during the 2026 CEO Summer Forum hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) at Lotte Hotel Jeju, Friday. Courtesy of FKI

JEJU ISLAND — Companies hoping to gain an edge in the artificial intelligence (AI) era should spend less time chasing the latest models but more time redesigning their organizations, as autonomous AI agents move closer to mainstream enterprise adoption, speakers at the 2026 CEO Summer Forum hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said Friday.

As generative AI rapidly evolves from a conversational assistant into a technology capable of executing increasingly sophisticated tasks, businesses now face the challenge of transforming decades-old workflows and adapt to the new AI era.

Wrtn AX CEO Park Min-jun said the focus of AI competition was shifting away from the technology itself toward organizational transformation. The company is an enterprise-level AI agent solutions provider.

“For the past several years, businesses have largely competed by adopting increasingly capable large language models, but with leading models now approaching similar levels of performance in many business applications, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how effectively companies reorganize themselves around AI,” Park said.

That transition is being accelerated by the emergence of so-called "computer-use agents" — AI systems capable of operating computers much like human employees by navigating software, completing workflows and carrying out office tasks autonomously.

According to Park, next-generation AI agents can execute actions ranging from processing invoices and sending emails to updating customer accounts and handling enterprise software.

Park predicted such agents would become mainstream over the next year.

"The technology is arriving much faster than companies can adapt," he said.

Science communicator Orbit speaks during the 2026 CEO Summer Forum hosted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) at Lotte Hotel Jeju, Friday. Courtesy of FKI

Science communicator Orbit, known for his YouTube channel with over 1.3 million subscribers, discussed how AI's rapid advancement made human decision-making even more important.

"As AI takes over execution, humans will increasingly be responsible for choosing what should be done," he said.

Orbit added that human verification capabilities will become even more important than the technology itself.

"AI can generate vast amounts of information very quickly, but it also produces incorrect information," he said. "What matters most is the human ability to verify that information. Creating an environment in which skilled professionals can focus on judgment is the key to productivity in the AI era."

Orbit said organizations should focus not only on improving AI capabilities, but also on redesigning how people make decisions, encouraging diverse viewpoints, assigning clear responsibility and empowering frontline employees to act more quickly.

Orbit also highlighted how AI has historically elevated, rather than diminished, human performance.

He pointed to AlphaGo's landmark victory over Korean go champion Lee Se-dol in 2016, noting that professional players ultimately became stronger by studying AI's unconventional strategies instead of competing against them.

Similarly, recent AI-assisted breakthroughs in mathematics demonstrated that machines increasingly function as creative collaborators rather than mere automation tools.

“Ultimately, the most important task for humans is verification,” Orbit said. "In the AI era, making rational choices has become more important than ever. Humans will ultimately be left with one thing: making choices. Judgment and review remain the responsibility of people."

He also stressed the importance of corporate decision-making structures.

"Good decisions do not come from prolonged deliberation, but from systems that are fast and accountable," he said. "Organizations that examine diverse viewpoints while assuming the possibility of failure, and that give frontline employees sufficient authority to make decisions, are the most effective."