KOTRA brings AI export marketing tools to northern Gyeonggi firms

KOTRA has launched an AI-powered export marketing support initiative targeting companies in northern Gyeonggi Province. The agency aims to ease the burden on local small and medium-sized enterprises by using AI tools for everything from promotional material production to overseas market recommendations and buyer connections.

KOTRA held an AI export marketing seminar Tuesday at the Gyeonggi Textile Comprehensive Support Center. The event was organized in partnership with local governments and related agencies, including Yangju City, Yeoncheon-gun, the Gyeonggi Regional Office of Small and Medium Venture Business, and the Gyeonggi Textile Federation.

About 100 representatives from 80 export companies and export-aspiring firms in Yangju, Dongducheon and Yeoncheon attended the seminar. Northern Gyeonggi is home to a large concentration of small and medium-sized enterprises in textiles and consumer goods, and KOTRA said demand for AI-assisted overseas marketing and buyer outreach is particularly strong in the region.

At the event, KOTRA introduced its export support programs and explained how to use its AI Trade Support Centers. The agency shared case studies of companies that had achieved tangible export results through AI, outlining ways local firms can enter overseas markets while reducing costs and staffing demands.

The AI Trade Support Centers are regional export hubs that KOTRA operates in collaboration with local governments and universities. Twenty centers are currently running nationwide. Through a nearby center, companies can access services including AI-based product feature analysis, multilingual promotional videos and brochure production, registration and exposure on the buyKOREA platform, automated market recommendations, and automated buyer matching.

Export consulting is also available. Companies can conduct video consultations using AI-generated materials, or tap offline support from KOTRA's overseas trade offices and export specialists. The centers also connect firms with "AI and digital trade talent" trained in partnership with regional universities, reducing the operational burden on small and medium-sized enterprises.

At Tuesday's seminar, outside AI experts led hands-on training sessions covering overseas market entry strategies and practical AI applications. KOTRA export specialists also ran consulting booths where they heard from individual companies and offered tailored advice.

Generative AI is increasingly being used on the export front to quickly produce product introductions, English-language proposals and materials for responding to overseas buyers. Analysts note that for regional small and medium-sized enterprises with limited staff and budgets, AI proficiency can be a decisive factor in how quickly they break into foreign markets.

Participant companies shared their own experiences. Organic Korea, one of the attending firms, said it successfully entered Thailand's retail network last year through an AI Trade Support Center export program and expects to begin exporting to three or four new countries this year.

Han Mandu, an agricultural corporation, said it used KOTRA's AI Trade Support Center to prepare locally tailored marketing materials and receive an AI-based export consulting strategy, then participated in a local trade show and secured $24,000 in exports to a new Southeast Asian market.

The AI Trade Support Centers' results have grown substantially. The 20 centers nationwide supported more than 8,000 companies last year and registered 40,000 products on buyKOREA, KOTRA's B2B export platform. That activity generated 4,071 confirmed export deals worth a combined $400 million. Among the beneficiaries were 1,354 domestic-only companies and first-time exporters.

Compared with the previous year, the number of confirmed deals rose 37 percent and the total value rose 70 percent. KOTRA said the centers are lowering the barriers to entry not only for established exporters but also for companies venturing into overseas markets for the first time.

Talent development is running in parallel. Including the first cohort of the 2026 AI Trade Talent Development Program, which completed training in late May, KOTRA has produced a total of 4,751 AI trade specialists to date. They support digital export marketing operations at regional companies.

KOTRA is also broadening its cooperation with local governments. The northern Gyeonggi seminar follows a workshop held in late May with nine local governments and nine export support agencies on expanding exports through the AI Trade Support Centers.

KOTRA plans to expand integrated online and offline support tailored to each region's key industries. Its Northern Gyeonggi Support Headquarters is running AI-powered export marketing projects aligned with local industries such as consumer goods and textiles, and intends to link the effort to domestic and international trade shows, overseas retail network entry, and post-event promotional showcases.

"Trade is a prime area where companies can use AI to cut time and cost while improving results such as finding new export partners," said Ahn Young-ju, head of KOTRA's AI Trade and Investment Division. "We will do everything we can to make the AI Trade Support Centers — operated in collaboration with local governments and universities — a hub that drives both quantitative and qualitative export growth, with AI and regional companies as its two pillars."