What Samsung’s AI Transformation (AX) Really Is
Samsung’s AI Transformation (AX) is a company-wide program to embed artificial intelligence into everyday work, giving all employees training, tools, and governance so AI becomes a routine part of how decisions are made, products are built, and operations run across the entire group. Announced on 9 June, AX is designed to move AI beyond isolated projects and into the center of Samsung’s workflows, from engineering to marketing and manufacturing. According to Chosunbiz, the initiative is one of Samsung’s largest efforts to expand AI adoption inside the organization rather than only in consumer products. The strategy makes AI literacy and generative AI adoption a shared responsibility: executives set direction, dedicated AI departments build internal expertise, and frontline teams experiment with new ways to automate work and improve productivity.
Opening the Tool Stack: Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude for All
A core pillar of the Samsung AI transformation is giving employees access to leading generative AI tools instead of limiting experiments to small pilot teams. Under AX, staff across subsidiaries can use Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude to support tasks such as software development, content creation for marketing, process optimization in manufacturing, and daily business operations. This is a notable shift: rather than building a single in-house model first, Samsung is standardizing employee AI training around external services that are already mature. The company positions generative AI adoption as a practical aid—drafting emails, summarizing reports, suggesting code, or simulating scenarios—while dedicated AI departments will manage policies, data protection rules, and best practices. By normalizing daily AI tool use, Samsung aims to accelerate experimentation and identify repeatable patterns that can later be codified into internal platforms or tailored solutions.
From Boardroom to Shop Floor: A Corporate AI Bootcamp
Training is at the center of Samsung’s corporate AI bootcamp approach. The company plans to provide AI education for roughly 280,000 employees by the end of 2026, focusing on AI literacy and how to integrate generative tools into daily workflows. The rollout starts at the top: more than 50 group presidents attend a two-day AX bootcamp at Samsung’s Human Resources Development Institute, while around 2,300 senior executives complete separate three-day sessions scheduled to finish by mid-August. During these leadership programs, Samsung is expected to present its group-wide AX Vision, explaining how each business unit should weave AI into operations. This top-down training signals that AI is not a side project but a leadership priority. It also sets expectations that managers will champion employee AI training, redesign processes, and measure productivity gains as AI becomes part of standard work.
Building AI Culture: Dedicated Teams and Everyday Workflows
Beyond tools and classes, Samsung is building an organizational culture around AI by reshaping structures and responsibilities. Each subsidiary will form a dedicated AI department responsible for managing technology implementation, setting guidelines, and growing internal expertise. These teams sit between central strategy and frontline practitioners, translating the AX Vision into practical projects such as automated reporting, smarter quality checks, or AI-assisted design reviews. The message is clear: AI is meant to be embedded in everyday workflows, not confined to research labs. For employees, this means AI literacy becomes a core skill and experimentation is encouraged as part of normal work. For leadership, it means treating AI as a long-term transformation program rather than a one-off upgrade. If successful, Samsung’s model could become a blueprint for other enterprises planning large-scale employee AI training and company-wide generative AI adoption.
