Soongsil University and Ene, to Launch Practical AI Transformation Training for Startups

For nearly half of the startups in Soongsil University’s Campus Town, the most urgent use for AI is not experimentation. It is automating repetitive work.

Soongsil University and cloud-based AI transformation company Ene surveyed 51 resident companies about their current use of AI and their needs for an AX transition. The participants included 32 IT and software firms, seven manufacturers and four distribution or commerce companies. Their development stages ranged from minimum viable product work to early customer acquisition, revenue generation and scale-up.

Forty-nine percent identified repetitive-task automation as the area where AX was most needed. Marketing-content automation followed at 39.2 percent, ahead of data analysis and report automation at 33.3 percent and adding AI functions to websites or apps at 31.4 percent. Respondents could select multiple answers.

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The Campus Town resident companies showed demand not only to use AI, but to automate actual work and turn it into services that customers can use.

The survey also pointed to a preference for usable results. Some 56.9 percent said they expected training to produce a working MVP. The finding suggested stronger demand for AI that could enter daily operations or become a service customers could use, rather than simple access to AI tools.

Security and privacy concerns ranked as the biggest obstacle, cited by 43.1 percent, followed by concerns about the quality of AI outputs at 41.2 percent. Nearly half, 47.1 percent, lacked experience deploying services in cloud or server environments, or knew the concepts only in theory. Soongsil and Ene said their training would therefore connect AI development with data preparation, cloud infrastructure and deployment, while tailoring support to each company’s sector, growth stage, data holdings and technical capacity.

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It is important to diagnose each company’s data and workflow structure, combine suitable AI technology with cloud infrastructure, and connect MVP construction to actual operations.