Nearly half of major South Korean manufacturers are already helping suppliers adopt artificial intelligence, underscoring how large companies increasingly view AI deployment across the supply chain as a competitiveness issue rather than only a cooperation effort. A survey commissioned by the Korea Enterprises Federation, or KEF, found 45.0% of 200 responding manufacturers were supporting suppliers' AI transformation, with 39.5% running pilot programs and 5.5% saying support had reached a scaling and institutionalization phase. Another 24.0% said they planned to provide support but had not yet started. The poll of the top 800 manufacturers by revenue showed broad agreement that AI adoption needs to extend beyond lead companies to suppliers of materials, components and equipment. Overall, 91.5% of respondents said AI transformation across the full supply chain was important for securing manufacturing competitiveness, and even among companies without support plans, 82.3% said it was important. Higher productivity was the most commonly expected benefit at 48.8%, followed by responding to supply-chain risks, cost cutting and meeting regulations. Companies' support efforts were focused mainly on building data foundations, including integrating and standardizing production, quality, equipment and logistics data, while direct provision of AI solutions or infrastructure was less common. The biggest obstacles were suppliers' weak digital infrastructure and AI capabilities, along with data integration and security challenges and the cost of adoption. Respondents also strongly backed government help, particularly with adoption costs and the development of AI solutions and standard models by industry and process.