Samsung Electronics to set up AI research center

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Wednesday it would create an artificial intelligence (AI) research center and strengthen an executive role to look for new business areas for all its three major business groups.

The minor changes to the tech giant’s business structure were to “quickly respond to market changes,” Samsung Electronics said in a statement.

The move follows last month’s appointment of a new generation of top managers that dispelled lingering worries about a leadership vacuum from the detention of Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee.

The new AI research center would be under a joint research center of the mobile and consumer electronics businesses, two of its three main businesses, the company said. However, it did not say where the center will be located.

Samsung Electronics also strengthened the “business development” role of Young Sohn, its chief strategy officer, to explore new business opportunities in not only components but in mobile and consumer electronics as well.

Sohn led Samsung Electronics’ $8 billion acquisition of Harman International, which was agreed on in November last year. He oversees the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center (SSIC) that has offices in San Jose and San Francisco in the United States, among others, according to the SSIC website.