SMEs ministry selects 175 businesses for smart-service support

The SMEs ministry said it had selected 175 small service-sector businesses for its 2026 Smart Service program to help them build smart-service solutions using artificial intelligence (AI), big data and other advanced ICT.

Of the selections, 150 businesses will develop new solutions with up to 50 million won each, while 25 will upgrade existing services with up to 100 million won per company. The 10.9 billion won program supports new business models and service-delivery improvements in logistics, supply-chain management and marketing.

Following a March business announcement, 545 small businesses applied, recording a competition rate of 3:1. The ministry chose recipients through document and site evaluations of their need for support, the suitability of their plans, the feasibility of building solutions and expected effects.

Distribution businesses accounted for 50 recipients, or 29% of the total, followed by information and communications businesses with 39 and scientific and technical service businesses with 34. The selections included 83 startups and 92 businesses operating for more than seven years.

Among recipients, a provider of seafood distribution and trade data plans to use global supply-chain and market-price data to build a service that predicts import prices and recommends alternative species and origins for customers. An ICT-based caregiver-patient matching platform will add AI voice automation for caregiver registration, care logs and operations management. A fire-engineering services company plans to develop an AI fire-prediction platform using combined data, including temperature and smoke, and multiple sensors.

"The Smart Service Support Program will offer service-sector small businesses an opportunity to create new business models and improve productivity and competitiveness by adding AI," Hwang Young-ho, the SMEs ministry's director general for technology innovation policy, said. "We will continue policy support so innovation can take place among small businesses through AI and digital technologies."

Selected businesses will spend about six months building their smart-service solutions.