hankyoreh

A flag with Samsung’s logo flies outside the headquarters of Samsung Electronics in Seoul’s Seocho District. (Choi Hyeon-su/Hankyoreh)

The Samsung Group is expected to face controversy after announcing plans to assess how many workers’ labor would be replaced by a single employee using artificial intelligence amid the full-scale application of ChatGPT and other forms of third-party generative AI to work duties.

Signs of growing skepticism have already been detected within the group, where many are asking whether the adoption of AI is meant to clear the way for restructuring rather than to improve productivity.

Among Korea’s four major business groups, the Samsung Group is the first to fully adopt external generative AI services for duties across all its companies. Observers are suggesting its assessment methods could establish themselves as industry standards in the future.

According to the Hankyoreh’s investigation on Tuesday, Samsung Electronics — the key presence within the Samsung Group — instituted external generative AI services for employees working in its device experience (DX) division, which includes appliances and mobile devices. In the process, it told employees on Monday that it planned to “standardize quantitative management of AI transformation (AX) performance through the sole indicator of the full-time equivalent (FTE).”

The FTE approach involves calculating the number of people working 40 hours a week who are required to perform a given duty. In effect, the company was calling for an assessment of how many employees’ work could be done by a single employee using AI.

For this reason, some within Samsung Electronics voiced concerns that the adoption of AI could lead to staffing cuts.

“It’s concerning because the adoption of generative AI could be perceived as a measure for ultimately determining how many jobs can be cut rather than being used as a means of improving work efficiency,” a Samsung Electronics source said.

In response, the company stressed that the “measurement of AI transformation outcomes is an issue that other advanced global businesses are considering at present.”

“Any inadequacies that arise with the performance metrics are to be supplemented based on on-site cases,” it added.

By Bae Ji-hyun, staff reporter

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