Recently, the KBS documentary "Talent War 2: Chey Tae-won's Answer" posed significant questions for our society living in the AI era. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, outlined four essential competencies that future talent must possess: thinking, adaptability, empathy, and body skills.
Even as AI significantly replaces human knowledge and productivity, human competitiveness remains, centered on these four abilities.
Watching this broadcast, I gleaned insights beyond just talent development; it was a reflection on entrepreneurship in the AI era.
For over 30 years, I have studied entrepreneurship. As a journalist, I have reported from various industries, and I specialized in entrepreneurship during my doctoral studies in economics. My dissertation analyzed the determinants of entrepreneurship in South Korea and its impact on regional growth. The findings were clear: entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in growth, job creation, and the spread of innovation. While labor, capital, and technology are important, it is entrepreneurship that ultimately connects them to create new value.
I do not view entrepreneurship merely as a spirit of starting a business. I define it as the ability to discover new opportunities, take risks, and create new value through innovation. This aligns with economist Joseph Schumpeter's concept of "creative destruction." The power of entrepreneurship lies in creating new products, markets, production methods, and organizations.
As the AI revolution accelerates, I am convinced that the importance of entrepreneurship will only grow. Many people claim that AI will replace humans, and some jobs may disappear. However, the entrepreneurial spirit that drives economic growth will never vanish; it will become even more vital.
Why is that?
AI standardizes information, democratizes knowledge, and lowers technological barriers to entry. However, AI cannot define problems on its own, discover new markets, or take risks independently. Ultimately, it is up to humans to leverage AI to create new value.
Just as the steam engine did not build railroads by itself and electricity did not create factories, AI cannot innovate on its own. Entrepreneurs have always been at the center of progress, and this will remain true in the AI era. It is not technology but entrepreneurship that will determine growth.
[The Muscle of Thinking]
The first muscle Chey Tae-won mentioned is thinking. I believe this is the starting point of entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs are not those who find answers but those who create questions. All innovation begins with questions: Why are people uncomfortable? Why is this market inefficient? Why do existing methods remain unchanged?
Such questions create new business opportunities.
In the AI era, information is abundant. Anyone can use the same AI and access similar information. So where does competitiveness come from? I believe it arises from the questions we ask.
AI provides answers, but it is humans who decide what questions to pose. AI learns from the past, while entrepreneurs envision the future. AI analyzes patterns, while entrepreneurs discover possibilities.
Recently, there has been a claim that "memorization is unnecessary in the AI era." However, I disagree. Good questions stem from rich knowledge. Those who do not understand economics cannot discuss economic innovation, and those who lack technical knowledge cannot speak on technological innovation.
In my research on entrepreneurship, every successful entrepreneur I encountered was a dedicated learner. They studied markets, technologies, and people. They broadened their thinking through reading and deepened their insights through experience.
Even in the AI era, learning remains crucial, but the purpose shifts. In the past, we studied to memorize answers; now, we must study to formulate good questions. The age of knowledge is not over; rather, the way we utilize knowledge is changing.
Ultimately, the muscle of thinking is the ability to discover opportunities. It is the capacity to identify markets that others overlook and to ask questions that others do not. This is the first condition of entrepreneurship.
[The Muscle of Adaptability]
The second muscle is adaptability.
Entrepreneurship is fundamentally a process of battling uncertainty. No one can predict the future with certainty. Entrepreneurs must make decisions and take action amid uncertainty.
In the past industrial society, scale was a competitive advantage. Larger companies had the upper hand. Now, that has changed. The speed of change determines competitiveness. Adaptability is more important than size.
The AI revolution is accelerating this change. The boundaries between industries are collapsing. The distinction between manufacturing and services is disappearing. The lines between media and platforms are also blurring.
The media industry, where I work, is undergoing significant transformation. In the past, journalists monopolized information. Now, anyone can access information through AI. AI can write articles, translate, summarize, and even produce videos. However, this does not mean journalism will disappear; rather, it is being called to fulfill a higher-level role.
The same applies to businesses.
Yesterday's success does not guarantee tomorrow's success. In fact, past successes can lead to future failures. Companies that fail to adapt will become obsolete.
Through my encounters with numerous entrepreneurs, I have found a common trait among successful businesspeople: they are not afraid of failure. They embrace failure as part of the learning process. They experiment quickly and make adjustments swiftly.
In the AI era, this adaptability becomes even more crucial. AI significantly lowers the cost of experimentation, shortening the time needed to validate new ideas. Therefore, entrepreneurs must become experimenters rather than perfectionists.
The history of economic growth is ultimately a history of adaptation. Countries that adapted to the industrial revolution grew, and companies that adapted to the information revolution succeeded. The AI revolution will be no exception.
The future will be dominated not by the strongest companies but by those that adapt the fastest.
[The Muscle of Empathy]
The third muscle is empathy.
Many people emphasize technology when discussing the AI era. However, I believe that understanding humanity will become even more important.
AI can analyze data, predict consumer patterns, and assess markets. However, it cannot fully understand human desires and emotions.
The core of entrepreneurship is creating customer value. It is the entrepreneur's role to discover what customers want and to identify desires that customers may not even be aware of.
Steve Jobs famously said he did not trust market research because customers might not know what they want. Entrepreneurs must understand the future before their customers do.
Empathy is not just an emotion; it is the ability to see the world from another's perspective. It involves understanding customers' discomfort, societal issues, and the concerns of team members.
In the AI era, trust will become even more critical. Information is abundant, but trust is scarce. Products are plentiful, but brands are lacking.
Ultimately, future competitiveness will stem from trust.
A business is not merely an organization that sells products; it is a community that earns the trust of customers and society. Entrepreneurship, too, ultimately begins with understanding people.
I believe the essence of economic growth lies here. Sustainable growth is possible when it improves people's lives. Innovations that do not understand customers and society cannot endure.
As AI advances, the value of empathy will only increase, for while technology can be replicated, trust cannot.
[The Muscle of Body Skills]
The fourth muscle Chey Tae-won mentioned is body skills.
At first, this may sound somewhat unexpected. However, I interpret this as the ability to execute.
Entrepreneurship is not just about ideas; it is about action.
There are countless excellent ideas in the world, but few people can turn them into reality. Anyone can think, but not everyone can execute.
The most important characteristic of entrepreneurship is action. It requires the courage to take risks and enter the market. It involves the ability to create new products and provide new services.
AI can propose strategies, write reports, and create business plans. However, building factories, meeting customers, and leading organizations are human responsibilities.
In my experience managing a media company, I have seen countless plans. Most of them were excellent, but few were executed. The difference between success and failure lies not in ideas but in execution.
This remains true in the AI era.
Ideas utilizing AI will abound, but only a few will convert them into real value. Ultimately, the final stage of entrepreneurship is execution.
Entrepreneurs are thinkers as well as doers. The market rewards action, not thought.
Thus, I view body skills as the culmination of entrepreneurship.
The AI era represents a renaissance of entrepreneurship.
Through 30 years of studying entrepreneurship, I have come to one firm belief: the true driving force of economic growth is not technology but entrepreneurship.
Technology is a means.
Entrepreneurship is the direction.
Technology can be possessed by anyone.
Entrepreneurship cannot be possessed by everyone.
The AI revolution will provide more knowledge for free, standardize more technology, and facilitate greater information sharing.
However, precisely because of this, the value of entrepreneurship will rise even higher.
The ability to think.
The ability to adapt.
The ability to empathize.
The ability to execute.
The four muscles Chey Tae-won mentioned are, in fact, the four facets of entrepreneurship.
Thinking is the ability to discover opportunities, adaptability is the ability to overcome uncertainty, empathy is the ability to create value, and body skills are the execution that brings it to reality.
I believe the AI era will not mark the end of entrepreneurship but rather its renaissance.
As AI provides the same tools to everyone, it is humans who will make the difference: thinking humans, adaptable humans, empathetic humans, and action-oriented humans. These individuals will create new businesses, open new markets, and generate new jobs.
The future of South Korea will also be determined not by AI technology itself but by the level of entrepreneurial spirit that utilizes AI to create new value.
In the AI era, the protagonists of growth will not be technology but people, and those people are entrepreneurs.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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