GS Engineering & Construction holds AI competition finals, eyes real-world deployment

GS Engineering & Construction is accelerating its digital transformation by moving beyond company-wide AI training to deploying employee-developed AI solutions in actual construction work.

The company announced Monday that it had selected 12 projects with strong real-world applicability through its in-house AI competition, AX Recipe, and held the finals Friday.

At the finals, 12 teams demonstrated AI solutions they had developed themselves. Voting by management, including CEO Heo Yun-hong, and employees determined the top three teams.

This year's top prize went to an AI solution for streamlining the review of plant steel shop drawings. The winning entry replaced a manual process of visually cross-checking thousands of steel members one by one with an AI-based solution, cutting review time by more than 80 percent and significantly improving accuracy. The representative of the winning team will receive an invitation to attend CES 2027, the world's largest consumer electronics and IT trade show.

Now in its second year, AX Recipe — launched last year — is GS Engineering & Construction's flagship innovation program in which employees use AI to solve real workplace problems. This year the format shifted from individual to team participation, yielding a broad range of practical AI solutions ready for immediate deployment across the company's business lines, including architecture, infrastructure and plant construction, going well beyond simple task automation.

More than 90 teams entered the competition, and some 700 employees received AI training and dedicated coaching over July and August. The finals showcased a variety of construction-specific ideas, including a defect-prevention platform integration solution for the design and construction phases, a project contract change tracking system, and a solution for cross-checking 3D design models against specifications. GS Engineering & Construction plans to review the top projects for broader rollout across divisions and the company before applying them to operations in stages.

"Through AX Recipe, we confirmed that our employees can go beyond learning about AI to actually applying it on the job and delivering tangible results," a company official said. "We will continue to strengthen a system that organically connects training, hands-on practice and real-world application, and we will keep expanding a data and AI utilization model tailored to the construction industry."

Meanwhile, GS Engineering & Construction posted operating profit of 232.4 billion won ($168 million) in the first half of this year, up 41.8 percent from 164.2 billion won in the same period last year.