Korea Business Review
Korea Business Review

AI & DIGITAL INNOVATION

Successful AX: What and How to Succeed — 5 Conditions That Determine Performance

Despite rising adoption rates, only a minority of companies are achieving tangible results from AI Transformation (AX). While South Korea's domestic AI adoption rate stands at 37.1% (65.1% for large enterprises, 35.6% for small and medium-sized enterprises), and about 90% of global companies invest in AI, only around 40% actually achieve financial performance. The core of successful AX is not introducing tools, but redesigning workflows themselves, backed by data preparation, governance frameworks, and employee readiness. Pre-defining measurable performance indicators allows pilots to scale enterprise-wide, and for SMEs, it is more realistic to start small with their 'most painful task' rather than mimicking large corporations. Ultimately, AX is not a technology project but an organizational transformation project, and the winners are determined by organizations that systematically build the fundamentals: workflows, data, governance, people, and measurement.

강지혜 선임기자Published 2026년 7월 18일Updated 2026년 9월 18일
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Successful AX: What and How to Succeed — 5 Conditions That Determine Performance

Despite rising adoption rates, only a minority of companies are achieving tangible results from AI Transformation (AX). While South Korea's domestic AI adoption rate stands at 37.1% (65.1% for large enterprises, 35.6% for small and medium-sized enterprises), and about 90% of global companies invest in AI, only around 40% actually achieve financial performance. The core of successful AX is not introducing tools, but redesigning workflows themselves, backed by data preparation, governance frameworks, and employee readiness. Pre-defining measurable performance indicators allows pilots to scale enterprise-wide, and for SMEs, it is more realistic to start small with their 'most painful task' rather than mimicking large corporations. Ultimately, AX is not a technology project but an organizational transformation project, and the winners are determined by organizations that systematically build the fundamentals: workflows, data, governance, people, and measurement.

Why AI Adoption Rates Are Rising While Results Vary — Four Success Conditions: Workflow Redesign, Data, Governance, and People AI Transformation (AX) is no longer a buzzword for a specific industry; it has become a fundamental premise of corporate management.…

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