South Korea recently announced a “New Deal” in June 2020, which reportedly was to revive the country’s economy by focusing on digitalization. The country aimed to leverage technologies like 5G and AI to support economic recovery post-COVID-19, said GlobalData, a data and analytics company, in a recent release.
“South Korea’s telecom operators were one of the first adopters of 5G launching the services more than a year ago in April 2019. The government backed 'New Deal' will give an additional boost to the expansion of the 5G,” said Urte Jakimaviciute MSc, Senior Director of Market Research, GlobalData. “With the EU and North American countries turning away from China’s Huawei, South Korea’s Samsung may become an alternative.”
While the development and expansion of 5G infrastructure is becoming a critical tool to facilitate the data collection, transmission and exchange, the firm said in the report, AI is becoming a critical component in 5G’s evolution by creating network intelligence and automation.
“Global concerns over the virus transmittance in public places, together with emerging safety regulations and social distancing norms are giving a surge to touch free economies with technologies starting to play more important role than ever,” said Jakimaviciute. “Technological advancement has made it possible to aggregate the data from various digital tools and technology networks such as wearables, virtual reality devices and mobile apps.”
The convergence of 5G and AI will likely have a profound impact on industries like transportation, defense and healthcare, predicts GlobalData. For example, the report looks at Korea’s Samsung Medical Center, which has became one of the first hospitals to use 5G technology for on-site medical procedures and established itself as a 5G smart hospital powered by AI and other digital technologies.
“By announcing national strategy for AI at the end of 2019, Korea acknowledged AI as an important foundation to foster its future economic growth. While Korea still falls behind countries such as the US, the UK and China in AI competitiveness, its success in controlling COVID-19 outbreak may give it the confidence to accelerate the adoption of AI. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), Korea’s economy is set to contract by 2.1% in 2020. Nevertheless, South Korea is expected to do much better than the developed nations such as Japan, the UK and the US, which are expected to have far sharper declines,” Jakimaviciute concluded.
Ken Briodagh is a storyteller, writer and editor with about two decades of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.Edited by
Ken Briodagh
