SEOUL, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics, South Korea's tech behemoth, said Wednesday that it will foster artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G as its new growth engines to overcome business challenges.

Kim Ki-nam, vice chairman and chief executive of Samsung, made the remark during an annual shareholders meeting, the company said in a statement.

"As difficult business conditions continued this year, (Samsung) planned to push for fundamental innovations across the entire divisions of the company," he said.

He said Samsung will "intensively foster" AI and 5G as its new businesses to bear a meaningful fruit given the rapid growth in the segments recently.

Samsung logged its biggest-ever revenue and operating profit last year on a consolidated basis, but its first-quarter earnings this year were widely forecast to drop on lower memory chip price and smaller demand for smartphone.

DJ Koh, head of the company's IT & mobile communications unit which makes smartphone, said Samsung will keep seeking mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the 5G business as the technology is linked to AI and Internet of Things (IoT).