Professor Youngjae Jang, Director of the Physical AI Research Center for Manufacturing at KAIST, emphasized that Physical AI will be a game changer for strengthening Korea's manufacturing competitiveness. He explained that Physical AI is a core technology that enables autonomous manufacturing systems to perceive, reason, and learn in the physical world, driving the transition from conventional automation to true autonomy. He also noted that manufacturing is shifting from a product-centered industry to one centered on operational expertise, creating new opportunities to export manufacturing know-how in the form of software and platforms.

Professor Jang identified high-tech manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors and batteries, as well as the automotive, logistics, healthcare, and caregiving industries, as key application areas for Physical AI. He pointed to rapidly changing data environments, fragmented data, and hidden operational variables as major barriers to the adoption of manufacturing AI, emphasizing the need for process standardization and the integration of data and operational workflows to enable automated operations. He also described the KRW 1 trillion national Physical AI initiative as an effort to establish a regional industrial ecosystem model, adding that because Physical AI advances through real-world experimentation and iterative learning, Korea needs a national platform strategy and expanded testbeds to accelerate its development.