Ecopro Establishes "AI Innovation Office" to Accelerate AI-Driven Management

Encouraging AI System Adoption Across the Group
AI Lectures Provided for Employees and Executives

Ecopro announced on July 15 that it has recently established the "AI Innovation Office" through an organizational restructuring. The company expanded and reorganized the existing Digital Transformation (DT) Office, deploying AI experts throughout. This move is aimed at significantly reducing manufacturing costs and enhancing research and development capabilities by adopting AI, thereby building a company that can survive in any extreme external environment.

Exterior view of the Ecopro headquarters located in Cheongju, Chungbuk. Ecopro

The AI Innovation Office will serve as the control tower for the Ecopro Group's AI transformation. It plans to drive AI innovation across manufacturing, research and development (R&D), and administrative sectors by introducing and expanding AI systems throughout its affiliates. Through AI automation and optimization, the company aims to embed AI into production facilities and processes, and to improve decision-making and quality through AI collaboration.

In the administrative sector, Ecopro has set a goal of achieving an AI adoption rate of over 90% among departments for generative AI utilization and work automation. In the manufacturing and quality sectors, the company aims to improve manufacturing productivity by 30% through advanced production operations and the introduction of AI analysis systems. In the R&D sector, the goal is to achieve more than a 30% increase in research and development efficiency by deriving optimal research design alternatives and automating experiments.

Ecopro believes that, for successful AI management, it is necessary to identify and spread "small success cases." The company plans to hold an "AI Competition" in the second half of the year. It will share and reward cases where AI has been applied to drive innovation in areas such as manufacturing, development, and administrative work.

During a recent management meeting, Ecopro CEO Song Hojun stated, "We must recognize AI as a partner in our work and establish an AI mindset and processes throughout the company in order to survive in any external environment. In the short term, to lower costs and improve quality, AI must be integrated into all aspects of management, including manufacturing and R&D."

Since the end of last year, Ecopro has also been participating in the government-led "AI Autonomous Manufacturing National Project." The goal of this project is to use AI to analyze process data in real time, prevent errors in advance, and automatically control equipment to ensure the highest quality.

In addition, Ecopro is carrying out various activities to foster an AI mindset among its employees. Through its internal communication channel, Ecotalktalk, the company has shared articles contributed by AI experts, emphasizing the need for AI innovation. In an article titled "The Innovation AI Will Bring to the Ecopro Group," topics such as the revolution in R&D through AI adoption, yield improvement and post-analysis in manufacturing processes through AI analysis, AI-based demand forecasting systems, AI high-resolution image analysis for battery recycling, and the importance of viewing AI as a culture rather than just a technology were discussed.

To discuss the future strategy of the Ecopro Group, major executives from its affiliates attended a mid- to long-term business strategy workshop, where an AI expert was invited to give a lecture on "Manufacturing AI Adoption Strategies and Trends." During this event, employees shared insights on corporate operations in the AI-centric era, the need to accelerate AI initiatives to strengthen fundamental competitiveness, and the latest trends in AI technology.

Lee Sooho, Executive Vice President of the Ecopro AI Innovation Office, stated, "AI transformation is not just about utilizing AI technology, but fundamentally strengthening business competitiveness through AI. We will redefine innovative ways of working through AI and lay the foundation for securing sustainable competitive advantages."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.