The Smart Biz Expo 2026, hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and organized by Samsung Electronics and the Korea Federation of SMEs, opened at COEX in Seoul’s Samseong-dong district on October 13. The four-day event runs through October 16, with 53 companies presenting products and manufacturing innovations. Samsung’s Smart Factory 4.0 initiative has expanded beyond digital transformation to support tailored AI adoption at small and medium-sized businesses. This year’s expo also featured an AI pavilion showcasing companies using AI on factory floors.

At the opening ceremony, Samsung and small and medium-sized businesses shared results from their digital transformation work and the vision and goals of Smart Factory 4.0, which began this year. Samsung has added manufacturing AI support for companies facing barriers such as upfront investment and difficulty hiring specialists. It is helping them apply AI in stages, starting with processes where improvements could have a large effect, such as production bottlenecks. Samsung CR chief Park Seung-hee said the company would spread practical uses of AI based on its manufacturing experience and AI capabilities and work with smaller firms toward sustainable growth. Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young emphasized cooperation between large and small businesses to narrow their gaps, as well as opportunities to develop sales channels and partnerships.

At the AI pavilion, participating companies described production challenges, why they adopted AI, and examples of its use in actual processes. Printing company Printpia presented an AI agent to support factory operations and an automated smart logistics system. It demonstrated robotic arms and autonomous mobile robots sorting and stacking books. CEO Seo Dong-il said equipment improvements after adopting a smart factory had raised production efficiency and improved working conditions. He said the company aims to connect AI and robots to enable autonomous work, a field known as physical AI.

Precision-parts manufacturer TurboLink said production had increased about threefold as it pursued an autonomous control system linking AI vision and robots for machining, inspection, reworking defective products, and transport. The company plans to build a production system capable of running continuously for 24 hours. Safe manufacturer Sunil Safe presented a safe that can be monitored continuously by camera and plans to release a product with Samsung that uses SmartThings’ Find location feature. The company also said it plans to use AI to detect quality problems in advance and make its cleaning process more efficient, where it is difficult to check visually whether contaminants have been removed.

Samsung said it plans to continue drawing on more than 10 years of experience supporting smart factories to help small and medium-sized businesses improve manufacturing competitiveness and grow sustainably.

The Smart Biz Expo 2026, hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and organized by Samsung Electronics and the Korea Federation of SMEs, opened at COEX in Seoul’s Samseong-dong district on October 13. The four-day event runs through October 16, with 53 companies presenting products and manufacturing innovations. Samsung’s Smart Factory 4.0 initiative has expanded beyond digital transformation to support tailored AI adoption at small and medium-sized businesses. This year’s expo also featured an AI pavilion showcasing companies using AI on factory floors.

At the opening ceremony, Samsung and small and medium-sized businesses shared results from their digital transformation work and the vision and goals of Smart Factory 4.0, which began this year. Samsung has added manufacturing AI support for companies facing barriers such as upfront investment and difficulty hiring specialists. It is helping them apply AI in stages, starting with processes where improvements could have a large effect, such as production bottlenecks. Samsung CR chief Park Seung-hee said the company would spread practical uses of AI based on its manufacturing experience and AI capabilities and work with smaller firms toward sustainable growth. Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young emphasized cooperation between large and small businesses to narrow their gaps, as well as opportunities to develop sales channels and partnerships.

At the AI pavilion, participating companies described production challenges, why they adopted AI, and examples of its use in actual processes. Printing company Printpia presented an AI agent to support factory operations and an automated smart logistics system. It demonstrated robotic arms and autonomous mobile robots sorting and stacking books. CEO Seo Dong-il said equipment improvements after adopting a smart factory had raised production efficiency and improved working conditions. He said the company aims to connect AI and robots to enable autonomous work, a field known as physical AI.

Precision-parts manufacturer TurboLink said production had increased about threefold as it pursued an autonomous control system linking AI vision and robots for machining, inspection, reworking defective products, and transport. The company plans to build a production system capable of running continuously for 24 hours. Safe manufacturer Sunil Safe presented a safe that can be monitored continuously by camera and plans to release a product with Samsung that uses SmartThings’ Find location feature. The company also said it plans to use AI to detect quality problems in advance and make its cleaning process more efficient, where it is difficult to check visually whether contaminants have been removed.

Samsung said it plans to continue drawing on more than 10 years of experience supporting smart factories to help small and medium-sized businesses improve manufacturing competitiveness and grow sustainably.