As South Korea enforces its landmark AI Basic Act and moves to triple its national AI budget to ₩10.1 trillion ($7.27 billion) for 2026, the country is focused on solidifying the position among top global AI powerhouses by 2030. In this fast-moving landscape, AI is no longer seen as an add-on, but as the technological backbone of modern enterprises.
In this interview, Ha Minh Tuan, FPT Software VP and FPT Korea Chief Executive Officer, FPT Corporation, discusses how FPT is moving beyond implementation to help businesses navigate the AI-led transformation. He highlights FPT’s “AI-First” approach and its role in connecting South Korea’s industrial excellence with the dynamic digital talent pool of Vietnam.
What is FPT’s global AI vision, and how does FPT Korea fit into that roadmap?
AI is the cornerstone of our global strategy. FPT is an 'AI-First' company, delivering end-to-end, customized AI-powered transformation solutions. This commitment is backed by an AI-driven Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), over 25,000 AI-augmented engineers, and robust infrastructure including AI Factories equipped with NVIDIA GPUs and ranked among world’s 40 fastest supercomputers. FPT is also strengthening strategic alliances with hyperscalers, global tech leaders, and research institutions, including NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Microsoft, SAP to further enhance our AI capabilities.
FPT recently announced our long‑term technology direction, centered on five strategic technologies: Quantum AI, Cybersecurity, UAV, Data, and Railway Mobility Technology, with AI as a core enabler for all.
For the South Korean market, FPT is poised to become a trusted AI transformation partner. This vision is supported by a strong local presence since 2016, a growing pool of more than 300 onsite professionals and additional 2,500 offshore engineers dedicated to Korean-focused projects. Our end-to-end capabilities span digital technologies, IT and managed services, product engineering, and strategic consultancy, which have been showcased at key industry events like World IT Show, Microsoft AI Tour, AI & Cloud Conference, and Automotive World Korea.
Our commitment to the market is underscored by successful partnerships with leading companies such as LG Electronics, LG CNS, Blueward and more. Most recently we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FESCARO, a South Korean integrated vehicle security platform provider, to further enhance our end-to-end, scalable offerings for OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers.
How do you differentiate FPT’s AI services from global hyperscalers and big-tech platforms that Korean companies are already using?
For the projects delivered in the South Korean market, FPT focuses on Agentic AI as our core strength. Beyond applying AI, we aim to build a complete system of AI Agents capable of automatic assistance, analysis, and decision-making throughout the SDLC. This helps shorten the development cycle, minimize errors, and optimize productivity across the internal system of our clients.
Instead of general models, FPT delivers tailored AI solutions. Our core strength lies in converting deep domain knowledge and years of hands-on industry experience into high-impact transformation at scale.
Central to this is FleziPT, our AI-First platform that delivers up to 60% faster development, over 50% reduction in rework, and ~30% productivity uplift. It features a flexible, privacy‑conscious architecture to boost productivity while maintaining data security. It is complemented by a full ecosystem of AI agents, accelerators, and engineering capabilities that scale across various industries. FleziPT is driven by co‑innovation, it continuously learns and improves to help organizations move faster, operate smarter, and achieve next‑level transformation outcomes.
How do you see the role of open-source AI models versus proprietary models for Korean companies that want both performance and control?
While proprietary models currently maintain an edge in multimodal reasoning and orchestration, models like Llama, Mistral, and Qwen are catching up at remarkable pace with customisation, cost control, and sovereignty.
For Korean enterprises prioritizing both performance and control, we recommend a hybrid approach. This means utilizing open-source for the heavy lifting of core enterprise workloads, while reserving proprietary models for specific, advanced reasoning where they add distinct value. FPT’s AI assistant for developers, Codevista, is also built on this very principle of combining open foundations with enterprise-grade engineering.
How can Korean companies leverage FPT’s global delivery centers—especially in Vietnam—to accelerate AI projects while controlling cost and risk?
FPT’s best-shore delivery model combines nearshore, offshore and onsite delivery, enabling agility and flexibility to ensure the highest service quality. It is backed by a workforce of 54,000, a global presence across over 30 countries and territories, and more than 90 offices to provide responsive, round-the-clock, language‑compatible support close to our clients. Our Vietnam centers bring deep engineering expertise and scale, operating with unified governance, security, and quality standards. The result is faster delivery, assured outcomes, and the flexibility to scale capabilities as business needs evolve.
What role do you envision for FPT Korea in connecting Korean companies to AI talent and ecosystems in Southeast Asia?
South Korea has world-class hardware, manufacturing expertise, and a clear vision for the "K-AI" era. However, this momentum is facing a severe IT talent shortage. Particularly, the generative AI sector alone is projected to expand 2 to 3 times faster than the broader AI industry, resulting in an anticipated shortfall of over 50,000 tech specialists.
On the other hand, Vietnam offers a massive, young, and highly skilled pool of AI engineers as the second-largest talent pipeline in Southeast Asia, with over 560,000 software engineers, 60,000 IT graduates annually, and a strong advocacy for STEM and AI education at all levels. As Vietnam’s pioneering technology firm, FPT is well positioned to bridge this talent gap for South Korean enterprises, ensuring they have the scale and expertise required for large-scale AI deployment.
Inside FPT, how are you re-skilling your own workforce and aligning incentives so that employees actively use AI instead of fearing it?
At FPT, we view AI as an accelerator of human capability, not a replacement. Our approach is embedding AI into every stage of our people development journey. This includes mandatory AI training for all employees and extends to developing specialized expertise. FPT has recorded over 5 million learning hours per year, including more than 109,000 hours for AI basics. This focus is evidenced by our growing AI-augmented workforce and the 2,000 AI and Data Engineering graduates annually from FPT University.
We also provide our employees with advanced AI tools that enhance their productivity and quality. Our in-house AI agents and tools such as SalesMate, Maya, and PrivateGPT are used across business functions including procurement, administration, finance, HR, and marketing. In technical functions like software engineering, we develop AI tools such as CodeVista and TestVista that drive coding productivity and quality.
Korean government and enterprises are increasingly concerned about responsible AI—bias, transparency, and compliance. What governance frameworks or standards does FPT apply?
Globally, FPT is among the first organizations to achieve ISO/IEC 42001:2023 accredited certification for AI Management Systems. In South Korea, in alignment with the newly launched AI Basic Act, we immediately established an AI Governance Committee to lead and oversee the company’s AI strategy and governance activities. The committee works in close coordination with our global headquarters, ensuring that AI operations in Korea comply with local legal requirements while remaining consistent with the global AI governance framework.
By integrating local compliance with international standards, we are committed to empowering our clients and partners with impactful solutions built with responsibility and transparency.
If you had to give one piece of advice to Korean CEOs who are still cautious about AI investment, what would it be?
AI is no longer optional, but a fundamental requirement for global competitiveness. The key to success in translating AI into measurable impact is to select the right partner to ensure deployment at scale. FPT offers full stack AI enablement, making us uniquely positioned to help businesses not just pilot AI, but effectively deploy it at the necessary enterprise-grade level.
