Incheon Drives a Major Logistics Transformation with AI, Launches 'Logistics AX Alliance'

[Financial News, Incheon—Reporter Han Gap-su] Incheon City is making a full-fledged push into the 'Logistics AX (AI Transformation)' initiative, which applies artificial intelligence (AI) directly to logistics operations. The city plans to combine AI and digital technologies with its major logistics infrastructure, including Incheon International Airport and Incheon Port, to develop Incheon into a world-class smart logistics hub.
Incheon City announced on the 30th that it had held the launch ceremony for the 'Incheon Logistics AX Alliance' at the Harbor Park Hotel in Incheon, with about 100 people attending, including representatives from logistics companies, universities, research institutes and public agencies.
The alliance is a public-private-academic-research cooperation platform established to advance Logistics AX, a flagship AI initiative under ABC+EF, one of the ninth popularly elected administration's key pledges. Its goal goes beyond simply digitalizing logistics systems; the initiative focuses on applying AI to actual logistics operations to improve productivity and efficiency.
The city plans to use its regional advantage—the concentration of an airport, a port and logistics complexes—as the foundation for Logistics AX.
Incheon International Airport ranks third in the world in terms of air cargo volume, while Incheon Port handles 3.56 million TEUs of container traffic. One TEU is equivalent to one 6-meter container. The city is also home to about 29,000 logistics-related companies.
The alliance includes major companies such as CJ Logistics, Hanjin, Coupang, LX Pantos, Lotte Global Logistics, Samsung SDS and LG CNS. Universities and research institutes, including Inha University, Incheon National University, Hanyang University and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), are also participating, along with the Incheon Port Authority, Incheon International Airport Corporation and Incheon Technopark.
The city will work with these organizations to identify AI technologies needed in logistics operations and pursue research, development and demonstrations. It plans to use actual logistics sites—including airports, ports, industrial complexes and new towns—as test beds to verify whether the technologies can be commercialized.
The city is also pursuing the establishment of a 'Logistics AX Data Platform' to connect data currently scattered across different organizations. The plan is to link Incheon City's transportation and urban spatial data with the Incheon Port Authority's port operations and logistics information and the Incheon International Airport Corporation's air logistics data, then use the integrated data to develop AI-based logistics services.
Regulatory improvements and talent development are also key priorities. The alliance will operate working groups in areas such as policy and institutional improvements, data, demonstrations and commercialization, and talent development and expansion. It plans to identify difficulties faced in the field, jointly respond to government initiatives and conduct collaborative research.
In the long term, the city plans to establish 'Yungapwon,' a specialized research institute that will conduct national and private-sector research and development and demonstration projects. It will also build a living lab where new technologies and products can be tested in real-world environments. In addition, the city will operate Logistics AX training programs, connect trained specialists with companies and support the growth of related startups.
Through these efforts, the city aims to expand logistics AI technologies developed in Incheon to other regions and overseas, making Incheon an export hub for K-logistics.
At the launch ceremony, Mayor Park Chan-dae said, "The concentration of an airport, a port and logistics complexes in one place is a major asset for Incheon." He added, "For the Logistics AX ecosystem to become firmly established, the public and private sectors must respond together as one team."
[email protected] Han Gap-su Reporter