Kim Ki-moon calls for SMEs to join Korea's push to become AI top-3 nation

The 2026 SME Leaders Forum opened Tuesday in Jeju, bringing together more than 400 small and medium-sized enterprise leaders from across the country to discuss innovation and growth strategies for the AI era. The widening AI gap between large conglomerates and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and ways to sharpen SME competitiveness, are the forum's central agenda items.

The Korea Federation of SMEs held the opening ceremony at Lotte Hotel Jeju under the theme "Together with SMEs, toward becoming an AI top-3 nation."

Now in its 19th year, the forum drew more than 400 SME leaders representing industries and regions nationwide. Participants will spend three nights and four days — through Friday — discussing innovation and growth strategies to navigate a rapidly shifting business environment.

Korea Federation of SMEs Chairman Kim Ki-moon warned in his opening remarks that the growing gap in AI adoption between large companies and SMEs could deepen economic polarization.

"The Korean economy has been enjoying a boom, led by key industries such as semiconductors, automobiles and shipbuilding, but SMEs are facing record-high corporate bankruptcies and bank delinquency rates, and unpaid wages have surpassed 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) — signs that K-shaped polarization is intensifying," Kim said.

He added that there are growing concerns that the AI gap between large companies and SMEs will accelerate polarization even further.

Kim also said that while SMEs recognize the need to adopt AI, many struggle to apply it in practice.

"Many SMEs know AI is necessary, but say they don't know where or how to start," he said, explaining why this year's forum was organized around the theme of becoming an AI top-3 nation.

"This is an extremely critical moment — if we fail to break into the top three now, we will inevitably fall behind," Kim said. "We all need to pull together and prepare well."

The opening ceremony began with video congratulatory messages from National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik and Prime Minister Han Seong-sook, followed by a lecture by novelist Kim Hong-shin on the theme of living life as it comes.

On Wednesday, the forum's second day, a panel discussion titled "Innovation Strategies for SMEs in the Physical AI Era" will be held. Kim and Park Young-sun, chair of the Ministry of Economy and Finance's Strategic Economic Advisory Group, will join experts from the public and private sectors and academia to discuss ways to expand AI adoption and strengthen competitiveness among SMEs.

The discussion will focus on strategies for SMEs to adapt as AI technology becomes more deeply embedded in manufacturing and other industrial sectors. Securing funding and skilled personnel for AI adoption remains a particularly acute challenge for SMEs compared with larger companies.

The SME Leaders Forum was launched in 2007 with the aim of creating a dedicated platform for SMEs to discuss their own business conditions and pressing issues, separate from the large conglomerate-dominated economic forums that existed at the time.

Reflecting on the forum's founding, Kim said, "In the past, there was no forum for SMEs, so we had to join education programs designed around large companies. We formed a TF to create a forum tailored specifically to the SME community and launched the first event."

Kim also recalled that the sixth forum in 2012 put what he called the "three economic injustices" — unfair trade practices, market imbalances and an irrational regulatory system — at the center of its agenda. He said the economic democratization issues raised by the SME community at the time gained broad social resonance and fed into major campaign pledges by political parties.

Meanwhile, Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young is scheduled to attend a dinner with SME leaders Tuesday evening.