KES 2026 showcases AI integration across smart homes, factories, and mobility

The 57th Korea Electronics Show (KES 2026) took place from October 13 to 16 at COEX in Seoul, focusing on applying artificial intelligence to real-world industries. While LG Electronics presented smart house and factory models, Samsung Electronics hosted approximately 50 manufacturing SMEs to facilitate consultations with large buyers.

The 57th Korea Electronics Show (KES 2026), South Korea's largest electronics and information technology exhibition, took place from October 13 to 16 at COEX Halls A and B in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and organized by the Korea Electronics Association (KEA).

First held during the infancy of the electronics industry in 1969, KES has grown alongside the nation's electronic sector. This year's theme, "AI in Motion," focused on applying artificial intelligence (AI) technologies developed in laboratories to real-world industries, including mobility, manufacturing lines, and living infrastructure.

Halls A and B featured technologies and products across various sectors, including AI transformation (AX), robotics, next-generation mobility, components and materials, and smart home appliances. The exhibition spanned the entire electronic industry supply chain, from basic materials to finished products, with participants ranging from major corporations to mid-sized component manufacturers like Daeduck Electronics and national R&D institutions such as KETI. Daeduck Electronics demonstrated its capabilities in semiconductor substrates and electronic circuit manufacturing, while KETI showcased autonomous driving technology and computing solutions utilizing AI vision sensors equipped with Neural Processing Units (NPU) for robots.

In the mobility convergence pavilion, mobility companies, including the autonomous driving specialist SUM, introduced commercialization cases by exhibiting systems applied to actual mass-production platforms.

LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics utilized different approaches for their exhibition spaces. Under the theme "LG, Life Layers," LG Electronics presented a smart house model called "LG Smart Cottage" alongside smart factory solutions and industrial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) solutions. The company designed its entire standalone booth as a model house featuring LG products and technologies, presenting a spatial solution that controls high-efficiency HVAC systems, appliances, and robotics through a single platform.

Samsung Electronics, in addition to exhibiting its own finished products, collaborated with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Federation of SMEs to establish a large-scale dedicated space for "Smart Biz Expo 2026" in COEX Hall B. The company placed booths for approximately 50 manufacturing SMEs participating in its smart factory construction support project, as well as partner companies eligible for sales channel support, at the forefront to arrange consultations with large buyers. While LG Electronics focused on spatial configurations that combine products and technology, Samsung Electronics emphasized supply chain connectivity and expanding sales channels for SMEs.

Throughout the exhibition hall, joint pavilions organized by metropolitan and local governments, as well as public research institutes, were also situated. From lifestyle services to manufacturing and hardware, the differences in the companies and technology sectors fostered by each local government were evident in the booth configurations.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government introduced companies possessing solutions closely related to citizens' lives in the 'Startup X Quality of Life Special City Seoul' dedicated pavilion. The Gwanak SME and Venture Promotion Agency set up the 'Gwanak S Valley' joint pavilion to support technology verification and investment connections for resident startups, such as the AI-based automated entry solution company MUNERIX. The Bucheon Industry Promotion Agency operated a joint pavilion bringing together about 10 manufacturing SMEs from Bucheon, including the touch panel technology company A-One and the smart blackboard solution company MS Korea.

At the university exhibitions, one could see both students' project results and the commercialization technologies of faculty and student-led startups. Dongyang Mirae University held its 44th Graduation Work Exhibition within the KES exhibition hall, showcasing projects applicable to the field, such as the intelligent walking assistance robot for a person with a visual impairment, 'Nurinarae', and the logistics warehouse loading optimization system, 'MCA'.

KAIST linked its campus tech fair with KES, arranging the booths of four faculty and student-based startups, including HYPERGRAM, A2US, and milliTrack, in one location.

University technology holding companies and laboratory startups exhibited deep-tech-based technologies, such as industrial AI inspection systems and ultra-precision indoor positioning mobility tags, and conducted technology transfer consultations and commercialization discussions.

Large-scale exhibition spaces dealing with Extended Reality (XR) and spatial computing technologies were also notable. In the 'Seoul XR Theme Pavilion' hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SBA) and the 'KES 2026 XR & Spatial Computing Special Exhibition' in Hall B, solutions that can be utilized in work—such as industrial process monitoring, virtual store simulation, and sports analysis—were introduced, in addition to hardware specifications. XR specialist companies, including MOPIC, which presented a smartphone-attachable spatial display, presented their accumulated R&D achievements as tools for improving work efficiency in the business-to-business (B2B) market. The focus of the exhibition was shifted beyond the implementation of the technology itself toward how it can be utilized in actual work.

This KES 2026 served as a place for early-stage companies to check marketability alongside product promotion. To achieve results from exhibition participation, companies must go beyond merely displaying products and secure follow-up business opportunities. Like the companies that participated through Gwanak S Valley or local government joint pavilions, there is a need to utilize pre-arranged buyer meeting and Proof of Concept (PoC) connection opportunities and to directly contact component sourcing managers from large corporations. In particular, early-stage hardware and solution startups must diagnose the marketability of their products based on visitor reactions collected at the booths and confirm whether their technology can be linked to the smart home, smart factory, and autonomous driving mobility ecosystems of large corporations to lead to investment attraction, securing sales, and expanding sales channels.

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