2026 APEC International Seminar on AI-Driven Design Innovation Kicks Off

TDRI Showcases Chinese Taipei's AI Digital Design Tools and Expands Asia-Pacific Collaboration

TAIPEI, Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) kicked off the two-day 2026 APEC International Seminar on AI-Driven Design Innovation on September 16, bringing together expert representatives from eight APEC economies—Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Peru, the Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Thailand —as well as nearly 100 experts from government, industry, academia, and research institutions.

TDRI President Chi-Yi Chang said that, with support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Department of Industrial Technology (DoIT) through its technology development programs, TDRI has been actively promoting the integration of design and technology and developing an AI Technology and Application Platform for the Design Sector. TDRI's efforts span the development of design knowledge engineering and core AI capabilities—including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI skills, workflows, and AI agents—to the development of AI tools tailored to designers' real-world workflows.

These initiatives are designed to accelerate AI transformation in Chinese Taipei's design industry and help enterprises streamline early-stage product development research. The tools are estimated to reduce annual development costs by 5–10% and cut manual data-analysis time by approximately 30%. Some of TDRI's AI design strategy and product data analysis tools have already been adopted by five major domestic design industry associations, covering fields including industrial design, graphic design, interior design, and interaction design. The achievements have not only received recognition from the Golden Pin Design Award but have also been successfully promoted in the United States, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and other countries.

In addition to exploring four key themes—AI-driven design trends, policy, talent development, and opportunities for industrial transformation—the conference features an AI-Driven Design Innovation Workshop, where experts from participating economies will discuss how AI can strengthen MSMEs' innovation capabilities, as well as directions for talent development, policy support, and regional cooperation. Participants will also visit the 2026 Taiwan InnoTech Expo (TIE) to experience Chinese Taipei's innovation capabilities in AI, semiconductors, and other technology sectors.

Through this APEC exchange, TDRI looks forward to helping MSMEs across the Asia-Pacific region seize opportunities arising from AI transformation, strengthen their innovation capabilities, and work together to build a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable innovation ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific region.