Ulsan, the largest manufacturing city in Korea, has launched a full-scale initiative to strengthen industrial competitiveness using artificial intelligence (AI). A public-private cooperation system has been established to lead industrial artificial intelligence transformation (AX), which applies AI to production sites in key industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding, and petrochemicals. The “industrial AX” strategy, which Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-wook has promoted as a core municipal policy task, has also entered the full implementation stage.

Ulsan City on the 9th signed a “Business Agreement for the Expansion of AX in Ulsan’s Manufacturing Industry” at City Hall and launched the “Ulsan Industry AX Council,” a public-private cooperation body to implement the agreement.

The agreement was joined by Ulsan Mayor Kim Sang-wook, former Senior Secretary to the President for AI Future Strategy Ha Jung-woo, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) Vice President Ahn Hyun-sil, and 13 companies, universities, and research institutes including Hyundai Motor, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, SK Energy, Naver Cloud, SK Telecom, University of Ulsan, Chonnam National University, and Kyungpook National University.

● Industrial AX as Ulsan’s future growth strategy

The agreement is significant as the first public-private cooperation platform that concretizes the industrial AX initiative that Mayor Kim has emphasized since before taking office.

Ulsan City is pursuing industrial AX as a future growth strategy, not only by fostering the AI industry itself but by integrating AI into production processes, quality control, and facility operations in existing core industries such as automobiles, shipbuilding, and petrochemicals. In the transition committee’s policy briefing, Mayor Kim identified as key tasks the development of a manufacturing-specialized small language model (sLLM), demonstration of physical AI, creation of an industrial AX testbed complex, and establishment of an industry-academia-research collaboration system, setting a direction to develop Ulsan not as an “AI city” but as an “industrial AX city.”

This aligns with a strategy to achieve manufacturing innovation by positioning AI as a new growth engine at a time when strengthening the competitiveness and restructuring the industrial base of regional pillar industries has become urgent due to intensifying global manufacturing competition and sluggish conditions in the petrochemical sector.

Participating institutions agreed to cooperate on establishing an industrial AX cooperation system; building infrastructure and sharing data for a demonstration research complex; joint research, development, and demonstration of a manufacturing-specialized sLLM and physical AI; training specialized personnel; and creating regional digital jobs.

● ‘Control tower’ for spreading AI in manufacturing sites

The Ulsan Industry AX Council, launched alongside the agreement, will serve as a control tower responsible for identifying related projects, providing policy advice, and coordinating cooperative tasks among institutions.

In particular, a core task is to combine the manufacturing site experience of Hyundai Motor, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and SK Energy with the AI technologies of Naver Cloud and SK Telecom to jointly develop and demonstrate AI models for use in production processes, and then disseminate these models to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-sized companies, and partner firms.

Centered on the council, Ulsan City plans to build a manufacturing AI ecosystem that links research and development, demonstration, and commercialization, and to accelerate the creation of an industrial AX hub.

Following the signing ceremony, former Senior Secretary for AI Future Strategy Ha Jung-woo delivered a special lecture titled “Ulsan Artificial Intelligence Transition (AX): Strategy to Reactivate Korea’s Growth Engine.” In addition, SK Telecom and local university representatives discussed joint development of curricula and internships for training specialists in AI data center operations, the operation of contract departments, and measures to connect regional talent with employment opportunities.

Mayor Kim stated, “The city will rapidly push ahead with strengthening a cooperation base in which technology, talent, and on-site industrial demand are closely connected, and with ensuring that AI models and field-application technologies, validated in leading processes at large companies, can quickly spread to SMEs, mid-sized enterprises, and partner companies.”

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