[Edaily Reporter Shin Yeong-bin ] The number of users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT for businesses in South Korea has increased 28-fold over the past year. This is due to the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) agents that perform tasks directly in place of humans.

Kim Kyung-hoon, Managing Director of OpenAI Korea, stated on the 9th at a press conference marking the first anniversary of the launch of the Korea office, held at the Chosun Palace Hotel in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, “Over the past year, both the scope and depth of AI adoption in Korea have grown.”

According to OpenAI, as of the end of August, the number of ChatGPT Enterprise users in Korea had increased approximately 28-fold compared to a year ago. Weekly active users of the standard ChatGPT in Korea also rose by 35% year-over-year.

In particular, the trend of AI performing actual work tasks has become increasingly evident. The number of weekly active users of ChatGPT Work and Codex in South Korea increased approximately 14-fold in just six months compared to last March. Codex is a coding agent that assists with writing and modifying code, while ChatGPT Work is a business-oriented AI that utilizes apps and files to perform tasks ranging from research and analysis to document creation.

CEO Kim explained, “Whereas in the past, AI was limited to providing internal corporate information via chatbots, we are now moving toward a stage where we form teams with Agent AI to create new products and services.” He added that the use of Agent AI is rapidly increasing even in non-development roles such as legal, finance, human resources, accounting, marketing, and sales.

OpenAI anticipates that its recently unveiled GPT-6 “Astra” will further expand the use of AI in businesses. CEO Kim stated, “The most important factor we considered with Astra was whether it could complete tasks independently from start to finish,” adding, “In the past, even when we entrusted tasks to AI, humans still had to intervene and review them periodically; now, we’ve entered an era where we can confidently delegate even more challenging tasks to AI.”

He cited SamsungElectronics(005930)and Seoul National University as prime examples. SamsungElectronics is utilizing ChatGPT for various tasks, including research and development (R&D), marketing, international sales, and production management, while at Seoul National University, approximately 50,000 students and faculty members are using ChatGPT and Codex for research and work.

OpenAI is also expanding its infrastructure in Korea. Currently, Korean customers can use “data residency,” which stores data domestically; going forward, the company plans to support “inference residency,” where even the computations performed by AI to generate responses are processed within the country.

CEO Kim said, “We are continuing discussions with several partners in Korea capable of providing inference infrastructure,” adding, “We expect that when new GPUs are deployed at one of these partners, a portion will be allocated for OpenAI inference.”

He also left the door open for potential collaboration with domestic cloud service providers. CEO Kim said, “I expect the day will come when OpenAI models are deployed on the infrastructure of Korean cloud service providers.”

The company is also expanding its cybersecurity business. OpenAI is currently collaborating with approximately five companies in South Korea on cybersecurity initiatives and plans to increase its cooperation with the South Korean government and domestic security firms.

CEO Kim said, “The speed and depth of adoption increase when AI performs actual tasks from start to finish, integrates seamlessly with existing systems, and operates within the security and control frameworks required by enterprises,” adding, “We will continue to support Korean companies and institutions so they can leverage the most advanced AI technologies.”