(KPL/Yonhap) Satya Nadella, chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft Corp., said Wednesday the company's recent artificial intelligence (AI) partnerships with Republic of Korean companies are based on his confidence in the country's human capital and AI capabilities, which he believes will drive future economic growth.

"You see a tremendous amount of productivity gains (through AI). And this is not just about Microsoft. It's happening right here in Korea, with all kinds of customers everywhere," Nadalla said in a keynote speech during the Microsoft AI Tour 2025 in Seoul.

He introduced Republic of Korean companies that have integrated Microsoft's AI solutions, including Copilot, its generative AI chatbot, to enhance productivity and customer service.

"It's just fantastic, whether it's in gaming, whether it's in retail or whether it's in manufacturing. You see all these companies here, who are able to use this technology to drive tangible returns on investment and tangible productivity gains," he said.

Nadella highlighted a 2.4 trillion-won (US$1.65 billion) partnership with Republic of Korean telecommunications giant KT Corp. signed last year. He emphasized that the two companies share a vision of AI playing a key role in transforming daily lives and the broader economy.

"We are also very mindful that one of the most important things for us to collectively do is to ensure the broad diffusion of skills around AI," he said.

"It's about the human capital of Korea and the AI capability of Korea, that together will create an economy that flourishes way into the future."

Nadella met with KT CEO Kim Young-shub the previous day to discuss details of the partnership, focusing on jointly developing new AI models tailored to the Korean language and culture, as well as new cloud services catering to the needs of Korean corporate customers.

He expressed confidence that the collaboration will further boost Republic of Korea's economic growth.

"We partnered with KT to really ensure that we can bring that next level of capability that is locally being built around our platforms to enable the rest of the Korean economy," he said.

"So we are very excited about it. (We are) making sure that we can scale the country broadly to be able to take advantage of all this innovation and create more innovation for Korea and the world."

Later in the day, Nadella met with LG Electronics Inc. CEO Cho Joo-wan to discuss details of the companies' AI partnership announced in January.

"This meeting reaffirmed the shared vision between LG Electronics and Microsoft and discussed the continued growth of our strategic partnership," Cho said on his social media account.

"Our discussions focused on three main aspects: progress updates on AI agent co-development, data center collaboration, and LG's new journey in India."

The LG Electronics-Microsoft partnership is focused on expanding AI collaboration in the home, mobility and commercial sectors, and providing LG Electronics' Chiller technology to Microsoft's data centers.

KPL