[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver (NAVER(035420)), emphasized that to promote the widespread adoption of industrial artificial intelligence (AI), an environment is needed where not only large corporations but also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and partner companies can easily utilize AI. Naver and Siemens also discussed potential collaboration to apply digital twins, robots, and robot foundation models to industrial settings.

According to Naver on the 2nd, CEO Choi held a special discussion on “Industrial AI” with Roland Busch, Chairman of the Siemens Group, at the “19th Asia-Pacific German Business Conference (APK) 2026,” held on the 31st of last month at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas.

CEO Choi stated, “The true tipping point for AI in the industrial sector will come when even small businesses can easily utilize AI,” adding, “Only when the foundation for AI adoption expands to include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and partner companies can the performance of individual firms lead to improved productivity and competitiveness across the entire industry.”

“AI Success Should Be Judged by Whether It Solves On-Site Problems, Not Just by Outcomes”

CEO Choi also addressed the criteria for evaluating the success of AI adoption in industrial settings.

He remarked, “As the scope of tasks performed by AI expands, the role of the person verifying and evaluating the results becomes even more critical,” adding, “The true measure of AI adoption’s success lies not only in the quality of the outputs generated by AI but also in whether it has solved actual on-site problems and how much of the time and resources saved through AI have been redirected toward more valuable tasks.”

Against the backdrop of AI’s expanding application into physical industrial sectors such as manufacturing, energy, and mobility, the two also discussed ways to combine Germany’s industrial engineering capabilities with Asia’s semiconductor, AI model, and digital platform technologies.

Chairman Bush remarked, “Industrial AI has reached a critical turning point in realizing new possibilities,” adding, “Its value is only fully realized when it is implemented safely and reliably on the shop floor and spreads throughout the entire industry.”

He added, “We will work together to usher in a new industrial era by combining Germany’s accumulated engineering expertise with Asia’s rapidly growing technological innovation capabilities.”

Siemens Executives Visit 1784… Discuss Collaboration on Digital Twins and Robotics

Following the discussion, Siemens executives visited Naver’s second headquarters, 1784. The delegation included Chairman Busch, Dagma Mundani, Head of M&A at Siemens; Jung Ha-joong, CEO of Siemens Korea; and Stephanie Frank, Head of Digital Industries at Siemens Korea. Representing Naver were CEO Choi and Seok Sang-ok, CEO of Naver Labs.

The two companies shared examples of how Naver’s digital twin technology has been applied in real-world industrial settings and discussed ways to expand into the global market by integrating it with Siemens’ industrial solutions.

They also explored potential collaboration opportunities regarding the robotics technology and robot foundation models currently under development by Naver. Following the meeting, Siemens executives toured the 1784 facility to observe examples of robots and various Naver technologies in operation within a real-world environment.

Meanwhile, the APK is an economic event that began in 1986. Co-hosted by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Korea and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, among others, it brings together government officials from the Asia-Pacific region and executives from global companies to discuss industrial cooperation.