30s Group 'AI Specialist Executives' Doubled in One Year... LG Ranks First

Analysis of Executives Status in Leaders Index
LG Leads with 55 Members
SK 53 Members, Samsung 19 Members

Fueled by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, the number of AI-specialized executives in South Korea's top 30 conglomerates more than doubled compared to last year. The group with the most AI-specialized executives was LG Group.

On the 28th, Leaders Index, a corporate analysis research institute, analyzed the executive status of 295 companies that submitted their first-quarter reports reflecting executive appointments this year among the top 30 groups by assets. The total number of AI-specialized executives was found to be 187, an increase of 98 from 89 in the first quarter of last year. This accounts for 1.6% of the total 11,343 executives.

Leaders Index classified executives with AI-related departments or work experience as AI-specialized executives based on their responsibilities and career history, including outside directors.

[Provided by Leaders Index]

The number of groups with at least one AI-specialized executive increased from 15 groups in the first quarter of last year to 17 groups in the first quarter of this year.

Among the top 30 groups, LG Group had the most AI-specialized executives, totaling 55. This is more than double the 25 executives in the first quarter of last year. LG has 15 AI-specialized executives at the LG AI Research Institute, established in 2020, and 19 at LG Electronics. Additionally, LG CNS recruited Jin Yohan, former head of Emart's Digital Business Division, as the AI Center head earlier this year, and other affiliates have 20 AI-specialized executives.

Second place was SK with 53 executives, an increase of 39 from 14 last year. SK Hynix, which recently increased supply of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) semiconductors used in Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs), established an AI infrastructure department and placed 24 executives under President Kim Juseon, resulting in a significant increase. SK Telecom also has 22 AI-specialized executives.

Following that, KT doubled from 14 to 28 executives, Samsung increased from 16 to 19, and Hyundai Motor rose from 2 to 6. Samsung's 11 AI-specialized executives include outside director Professor Cho Hyekyung of Hansung University's AI Application Department, Kim Daehyun, head of Samsung Research's Global AI Center, and Ryu Kyungdong, SAIT Vice President who was formerly in charge of Google Android Automotive.

Others include Naver with 4, Mirae Asset, POSCO, Lotte, and CJ each with 3, and HD Hyundai and Kakao each with 2.

Meanwhile, regarding the alma maters of AI-specialized executives, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) had the most with 18, followed by Seoul National University with 14, Korea University with 7, Yonsei University and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) each with 6, and Sungkyunkwan University with 5.