Nexen Tire holds AI smart-work competition for employees

Nexen Tire announced Monday that it held an "R&D AI Smart Work Competition" at The Nexen UniverCITY, its central research institute in the Magok district of Seoul.

The competition was designed to identify cases where researchers had applied AI directly to their work and to broaden practical adoption across the company. Three entries took top honors: an integrated office solution portal, an AI-powered racing data analysis tool, and a laboratory equipment management automation system.

The first-place entry, the integrated office solution portal, consolidates previously scattered evaluation and task management systems into a single platform, allowing users to query email, schedules, budgets and test plans through an AI agent. Entries were judged on practical applicability, concrete results and potential for company-wide adoption.

A notable feature of this year's competition was that all winning entries were built by working researchers rather than dedicated development teams. Nexen Tire introduced ChatGPT Enterprise in May and has since provided AI training to office and research staff in Korea, laying the groundwork for company-wide AI adoption.

Nexen Tire is expanding AI use across its research and development operations. The Magok central research institute is developing its own AI platform using AI agents and open-source LLMs, with the goal of connecting technical documents from research centers in Korea, the United States, China and Europe so that researchers can search for materials in natural language.

The company plans to build an environment where knowledge drawn from internal technical documents and actual test and measurement data can be compared in one place, eventually developing the system into a platform that supports decision-making from materials research through to tire development.

"The significance of this competition lies in the fact that working researchers — not specialist developers — are building and using the tools they need for their jobs," a Nexen Tire official said. "We will continue to build out our AI infrastructure, including ChatGPT Enterprise and our own work platforms, to connect data and workflows that have been siloed, and to develop safer, higher-quality tires."

Meanwhile, Nexen Tire is strengthening partnerships with major automakers at home and abroad to expand its market presence, including supplying original equipment tires for the eighth-generation Hyundai Motor Avante.