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GS chairman says anyone who won't embrace AI is 'unfit to be an executive'

Published: 17 Jul. 2025, 16:25

GS Group Chairman Huh Tae-soo convenes executives from major affiliates on July 16 to review the group's future business strategy and key execution tasks. [GS]

GS Group Chairman Huh Tae-soo didn’t mince words Thursday as he addressed roughly 150 top leaders at the conglomerate’s semiannual executive meeting, issuing a blunt warning: Adapt to the age of AI, or step aside.

“Anyone indifferent to technological change is unfit to be an executive,” he said at the group’s semiannual executive meeting on Wednesday. “With sweeping transformations underway, technology must be placed at the center of strategy — not just used as a tool — and we must rigorously explore concrete paths to business transformation.”

With GS’s core businesses under pressure — spanning oil refining, chemicals, energy, retail, and construction — Huh called on executives to place technology at the heart of strategy rather than treating it as an accessory. He urged leaders to rigorously pursue concrete paths to business transformation, leveraging the knowledge and data amassed across GS affiliates and combining it with AI to create new business opportunities.

The meeting covered sweeping shifts reshaping the global landscape: the rapid rise of Chinese competitors, the energy sector’s transformation, demographic and social change and, above all, a paradigm shift in technology.

Huh spotlighted “physical AI” — the application of generative AI beyond data analysis, extending into process optimization and robotics — as a potential game changer for GS’s industries. He also pointed to quantum computing as a near-future force capable of redrawing industrial boundaries.

On mergers, acquisitions and venture investment, Huh urged sharper focus.

“While we have been reviewing various merger and acquisition opportunities at the group level, it is now time for more strategic and executable approaches,” he said. The priority, he stressed, must be on deals that propel GS’s long-term growth and deepen ties with the venture ecosystem.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHOI SUN-EUL [[email protected]]