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Kim Wan-jong, CEO of SK AX, delivers a keynote address during the IMAGINE AX 2026 conference held at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on June 16. / Photo courtesy of SK AX

SK AX, an enterprise transformation company led by CEO Kim Wan-jong, announced on June 16 that it hosted its IMAGINE AX 2026 conference, declaring the dawn of the "Agentic Enterprise" era where artificial intelligence agents independently make decisions and execute complex workflows. Under the theme "Beyond AI: The Agentic Enterprise," the tech conference drew corporate executives from across the manufacturing, finance, telecommunications, and retail sectors to chart out a virtuous cycle of growth driven by seamless human-AI collaboration.

Delivering the keynote address, CEO Kim Wan-jong underscored that a company's ultimate competitive edge no longer stems from merely adopting superior AI models, but rather from achieving full-scale, enterprise-wide optimization to unlock new structural value. Kim noted that the performance divergence between organizations that have systematically amplified their workforce through AI and those that have fallen behind is already visibly manifesting in financial metrics, warning that this efficiency chasm will only widen moving forward.

To capture the upper bound of this shifting market dynamic, Kim asserted that enterprises must transcend superficial tool adoption and build out comprehensive AI transformation (AX) capabilities across strategy, core technology, data architecture, operational blueprints, and change management. He explained that SK AX has continuously stress-tested and validated these foundational proficiencies by serving as its own first customer under its corporate roadmap, dubbed "Being AX."

Kim further elucidated that true AX entails completely re-engineering the enterprise operating system and day-to-day work processes so that the entire organization moves in tandem with AI. He added that only when companies systematically cultivate a workforce capable of fluidly collaborating with artificial intelligence, backed by a supportive organizational culture, can they unlock authentic synergy and achieve comprehensive enterprise augmentation.

Following the keynote, executives from SK AX’s prominent enterprise clients and strategic partners presented concrete localization and deployment use cases that align with the "Being AX" vision. OpenAI, which entered into a strategic enterprise AI partnership with SK AX, highlighted its ongoing efforts to refine deep-context innovation models that seamlessly integrate with internal legacy systems to maximize measurable return on investment.

In the high-tech manufacturing sector, SK hynix revealed how it collaborated with SK AX to expand the precision and data utilization scope of its fabrication processes using digital twin technology, accelerating its transition toward fully autonomous factories aimed at maximizing wafer yields. Meanwhile, CS Wind, the global leader in wind tower manufacturing, demonstrated its newly deployed global manufacturing AX model, which links real-time production-floor data with autonomous AI agents to optimize complex assembly line scheduling and operational routing. Additionally, Shinhan Financial Group shared details on its upcoming operational framework built upon a "One Financial Agent per Employee" model, engineered to optimize white-collar workflows while strictly satisfying stringent financial data security protocols, administrative authority matrixes, and strict compliance oversight.

                                                                                                               Choi In-kyu