Google Korea Country Managing Director Yoon Koo, center, and Ruth Sun, right, country head of Google Cloud Korea, deliver a presentation titled "How Google Serves Korea Partners with Google AI" during the Google AI for Business 2026 event at The Shilla Seoul in central Seoul on July 14.NEWS1
As global AI companies race to capture the enterprise AI market, Google said Tuesday it will deepen AI partnerships with Korean companies, describing the country as a key battleground in the global AI race.
"Korea has become a battleground where every major player driving global AI innovation is competing head-to-head during this period of AI transformation," said Yoon Koo, the country managing director of Google Korea, during a press conference for "Google AI for Business 2026," hosted by the Big Tech giant at The Shilla Seoul in Jongno District, central Seoul.
Yoon cited Google's internal survey of Korean users, which found that 76 percent turn first to AI-powered search and multimodal search tools when seeking initial ideas or inspiration for new products and services.
"This shows that Google AI is evolving beyond marketing innovation to support business transformation across the entire business cycle," Yoon said.
"Google AI for Business 2026" is a three-day event showcasing the company's latest enterprise AI applications designed to help businesses transform their operations.
Ruth Sun, the head of Google Cloud Korea, also highlighted collaborations with Samsung Electronics and CJ Olive Young as examples of Google's enterprise AI strategy in action.
Google Cloud announced Monday that it would provide its enterprise AI platform, Gemini Enterprise, to Samsung's Device eXperience Division.
When Samsung decided to adopt the AI platform, the semiconductor company evaluated everything from performance and security to return on investment, according to Sun. Even employees tested the platform themselves and shared feedback.
Ruth Sun, right, country head of Google Cloud Korea, speaks alongside Google Korea Country Managing Director Yoon Koo during the Google AI for Business 2026 event at The Shilla Seoul in central Seoul on July 14.YONHAP
Describing the partnership with CJ Olive Young, Sun said merchandising teams with no software development background are building their own marketing agents under the company's security governance framework, while store employees manage inventory in real time using text, image and voice inputs.
Global AI companies have recently been intensifying competition for the enterprise AI market, which is viewed as more profitable than the consumer segment.
Throughout Tuesday's event, Google repeatedly emphasized that it is the only technology company offering a complete AI stack, ranging from its proprietary Tensor Processing Units to its Gemini AI models.
Sun pointed out that Korean companies have moved beyond asking whether AI is effective and are now focused on how quickly they can make AI a core growth engine.
To use AI models efficiently, minimize hallucinations and maximize return on investment, companies need to understand and manage not only the AI models themselves but the entire technology stack beneath them, she added.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
