KOTRA announced its “KOTRA AI Strategy” in September last year and has since been promoting a transition to an AI-based trade support system. KOTRA President Kang Kyung-sung (second from the right in the right-hand row) speaks at the “2025 3rd KOTRA AI Committee.” Provided by KOTRA.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA, President Kang Kyung-sung), a government agency supporting exports and investment, is intensifying efforts to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and globalize its use in the trade and investment support sector.
After driving the digital transformation of its export and investment support programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, KOTRA in July last year established the “KOTRA AI Committee,” chaired by the president and joined by external experts. In September, it finalized the “KOTRA AI Strategy,” built around three main pillars: ① utilization of AI in trade and investment support systems, ② support for the overseas expansion of the AI industrial ecosystem, and ③ enhancement of work productivity through AI utilization.
The government also acknowledged this importance by designating KOTRA in October last year as one of the “Top 10 Leading AI Public Institutions.”
On the 25th, KOTRA convened the 2026 AI Committee to review the implementation status of 40 existing initiatives and, reflecting market conditions and customer demand, confirmed 10 additional initiatives.
The KOTRA AI Strategy aims to enable anyone to conduct overseas business easily by introducing AI technology into existing export and investment support services, and to accelerate the country’s “leap into the global top three in AI” by supporting the overseas expansion of the domestic AI industrial ecosystem.
First, KOTRA will upgrade its AI-based trade and investment support system so that anyone can more easily enter overseas markets.
To this end, it will launch the first phase of the “AI Export Assistant” service within the year, using AI solutions to help companies export with a high cost-performance ratio. When a company makes an inquiry to the AI Export Assistant, it will automatically recommend buyers and promising markets, and immediately provide customized market information and market entry strategy reports by leveraging KOTRA’s internal and external structured and unstructured data. In addition, KOTRA is enhancing 20 “AI Trade Support Centers” nationwide as AI-enabled export hubs, improving export performance through analysis of product strengths and features, production of online promotional content, posting on B2B platforms, and automatic buyer recommendations. On KOTRA’s website “Trade Investment 24,” AI curation will be used to automatically recommend optimal export support services by synthesizing a company’s items, target countries of interest, and service history.
Second, to globalize the AI industrial ecosystem, KOTRA will expand globalization programs for AI-based industries and companies through exports, technology cooperation, and attraction of foreign investment.
Following intensive support in January and March this year for overseas expansion of AI-based technology companies at CES and MWC, the world’s two major information and communications technology (ICT) exhibitions, KOTRA plans in October to host for the first time a comprehensive AI exhibition tentatively titled “K Connect AI,” developing it into the leading industrial AI specialized exhibition in the Asia-Pacific region. In line with regional cooperation demand overseas, KOTRA will also conduct more than eight AI globalization initiatives in the first half of the year, such as “AI Frontier Japan (Tokyo)” and “Physical AI Super Connect (Silicon Valley).”
Third, KOTRA will actively introduce AI solutions to increase work productivity.
It will develop an automatic consultation-matching system between exporting companies and buyers and build an integrated data repository. It will also expand the introduction of AI solutions for interpretation, automatic generation of consultation records, and customer data management.
KOTRA will also invigorate internal and external, public-private cooperation councils to execute this AI transition. The AI Committee includes numerous external experts as well as KOTRA officials, and each department has an “AI Transition Officer” to strengthen execution. Matching the needs of related departments, KOTRA operates “AX Innovation Lab,” an open innovation program under which AI proof-of-concept projects are publicly solicited from private startups and implemented through public-private collaboration. For inter-agency cooperation, KOTRA plans to share implementation experiences and promote joint initiatives through the “Public Institution AI Utilization Council,” established early this year.
In addition, to ensure the sustainability of the regional AI export hub functions of the 20 AI Trade Support Centers nationwide, KOTRA is promoting an AI trade talent development program for 1,600 local young people in cooperation with local governments and regional universities.
KOTRA President Kang Kyung-sung stated, “AI is an essential technology for upgrading trade and investment support systems, reducing export marketing costs, and fostering new growth export industries,” adding, “KOTRA will do its utmost to usher in an era in which anyone can export using AI technology and to support the global expansion of Korea’s AI industry.”
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