{"name":"Applied AI in South Korea — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for South Korea, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/south-korea","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-10-29","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"South Korea","slug":"south-korea","iso2":"KR","region":"Asia-Pacific"},"nationalStrategy":{"name":"AI Action Plan 2026-2028","year":2026},"counts":{"entries":79,"deployments":63,"evidenceImpact":1,"evidenceAdoption":2,"regulation":13,"industries":13,"countries":1,"linked":79},"entries":[{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"District civil-service staff","org":"Suseong-gu Office, Daegu","text":"Suseong-gu in Daegu is trialling an AI chatbot for residents through October, covering administrative lookups and facility bookings. Multilingual, voice-enabled support aids foreigners and digitally excluded people; full AI civil-service help starts in November.","date":"2026-10","source":"https://news.lghellovision.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=557066"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Coast Guard maritime surveillance officer","org":"Korea Coast Guard","text":"Korea Coast Guard has begun Deep Blue Eye, a 2.5 billion won ($1.87 million) project to build AI maritime surveillance running through December 2027. The system, still in development, will analyse conditions live at sea beyond communications range, giving automated sea monitoring that spots illegal fishing by foreign vessels and maps people adrift.","date":"2026-10-08","source":"https://biz.heraldcorp.com/article/10897405"},{"kind":"evidence-impact","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","org":"Hyewon Medical Foundation Sejong Hospital","text":"Hyewon Medical Foundation's Sejong Hospital says AI bed assignment processed 4,216 admissions and placed 3,827 automatically between 1 May and 20 August, 90.8% completion. Weighing specialty, sex, timing, ward, room, staff notes and live vacancies, the tool saved an estimated 191 hours and 21 minutes, about 24 eight-hour days at three minutes per placement. Bucheon and Incheon Sejong hospitals run the automated allocation; Bucheon, fully live from 1 September, reports similar gains. These self-reported figures lack independent evaluation.","date":"2026-10-07","source":"http://www.whosaeng.com/174232"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Ministry of Health and Welfare","text":"South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare presented the Welfare and Care AI Grand Transformation Roadmap to the Cabinet, citing a forecast gap of about 990,000 care workers by 2043. From 2027, welfare AI should suggest benefits to citizens describing needs in plain speech, and over 50% of repetitive paperwork, from intake to data entry, is slated for automation. Social-care plans add AI-watched homes, smart facilities trialled in shrinking regions, and risk-graded ethics rules with human oversight.","date":"2026-10-06","source":"https://www.nsenior.co.kr/news/article.html?no=138663"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Duty-room civil servant","org":"Mapo District Office","text":"Mapo District is the first of Seoul's 25 autonomous districts to trial an AI Duty Voicebot, an AI voicebot for civil complaints answering duty-room calls on weekday nights, weekends and holidays in an October–December pilot. The bot gives department numbers, logs illegal parking, building-site noise or uncollected rubbish with a confirming text, and passes road subsidence to on-duty staff and emergencies to 119 or 112. Full rollout of this automated after-hours call handling follows from January 2027.","date":"2026-10-06","source":"https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2026100607244073056"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Fund managers and investment staff","org":"Woori Asset Management","text":"Woori Asset Management rolled out WISH (Woori Investment & Strategy Hub), giving every employee AI agents in asset management over one consolidated data store. Equity, fixed-income, alternatives and compliance teams pose plain-language questions, getting AI analysis for fund teams that speeds reporting and control checks.","date":"2026-10-02","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2026100211304313385"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety (South Korea)","text":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety confirmed public-sector AI ethics standards with 68 self-check items, a pillar of South Korea AI policy. Six values anchor them: privacy, safety, accountability, transparency, equity and public interest. People keep final responsibility over AI-supported administrative decisions, with named owners and human review.","date":"2026-10-01","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2026100117322943792"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Disclosure officer","org":"Korea East-West Power","text":"Korea East-West Power coached disclosure staff on generative AI for disclosure checks via ALIO pre-verification on in-house model EZY. Trained on guidelines and self-check items, EZY flags errors and mismatches and answers queries one-to-one.","date":"2026-10-01","source":"https://www.newscj.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3437195"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Ministry of Science and ICT","text":"The Ministry of Science and ICT has formed a public-private group of about 25 members to draft a National AI Safety Ecosystem Master Plan by December, the next step in South Korea AI policy. The National AI Strategy Committee, AI Safety Institute, NIA, KISDI and TTA join domestic and foreign AI firms, SMEs, startups, industry bodies and legal and technical experts. This national AI safety planning has three pillars: AI-safety management, frontier-risk readiness and safe everyday use.","date":"2026-09-30","source":"https://www.digitaltoday.co.kr/en/view/109089/msit-to-draw-up-blueprint-for-national-ai-safety-ecosystem-master-plan-by-december"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Local government officer","org":"Buk-gu Office, Gwangju","text":"Buk-gu in Gwangju answers after-hours complaints with an AI call-bot and gives staff a generative platform for memos, plans and press notes. The automated complaints line routes callers to information, the right department or emergency transfer, sending blazes, crashes or unrecognised requests to the duty officer. A year-end review follows.","date":"2026-09-28","source":"https://www.gukjenews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3706912"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Disaster-safety official","org":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety","text":"The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans roughly 940 billion won for 50 AI disaster response projects by 2030, forecasting hazards and recommending evacuations and controls. Busan, Yeongcheon and Inje County pilot heavy-rain and typhoon support for field officials after an 8 September kickoff. Effectiveness checks follow early next year for this AI-driven emergency management.","date":"2026-09-27","source":"https://en.nocutnews.co.kr/news/6583417"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"CCTV control-centre operator","org":"Gwangjin-gu Office, Seoul","text":"Gwangjin-gu in Seoul now runs AI CCTV search to trace missing children and older people with dementia. Given a photo or description, the software checks an hour of recordings from 100 cameras in roughly ten minutes, mapping movements over time for police. Officers received manuals and coaching for the automated video search.","date":"2026-09-24","source":"https://www.webeconomy.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=2316872"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Bae, Kim & Lee","text":"Bae, Kim & Lee ran AI-assisted preprocessing over three years of firm files to feed an in-house system, managing partner Yi Joon-ki told The Korea Times, with older archives due by year-end. BKL took generative AI firmwide this year after trials. Document-heavy cases gain most.","date":"2026-09-22","source":"https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20260922/in-ai-augmented-legal-market-clients-will-judge-firms-by-final-results-bkl-chief"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"District civil servant","org":"Nowon-gu Office, Seoul","text":"Nowon-gu in Seoul trials OnAI, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's generative AI for civil servants, from October. Officials will query rules, crunch data, draft papers and auto-generate minutes; 8 regional and 46 local authorities join. Nowon GPT already serves 1,150 of 1,584 staff in AI-supported administration.","date":"2026-09-21","source":"https://www.khan.co.kr/article/202609211524001/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Care case worker","org":"Chuncheon City","text":"Chuncheon City's second supplementary budget, passed by councillors, puts 1.647 billion won into ten projects including AI welfare checks. Power and telecoms readings drive AI-based check-ins, alerting case workers when someone living alone breaks routine, widening coverage from 200 to 500 people. CCTV detection of fly-tipping and about ten officials building bespoke tools complete the package.","date":"2026-09-21","source":"https://www.fnnews.com/news/202609211627594565"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Component engineer","org":"LG Innotek","text":"LG Innotek has carried AI parts selection into all its business divisions, with software steering engineers toward fitting components, suppliers and prices. Reading a store of roughly 2 million components, the component recommendation system draws a shortlist within two hours, cuts new-product quotation preparation more than 70% and prices to better than 96% accuracy. The same drive sped defect identification up to 90% and shrunk camera-module production settings from 72 hours to under six.","date":"2026-09-20","source":"https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10879595"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Transport & Logistics","region":"South Korea","role":"Traffic safety officer","org":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety","text":"South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety has settled a Chuseok Holiday Safety Management Plan pushing AI road safety warnings across 50 crash-prone stretches chosen by AI big data. Those accident-risk alerts surface on the T map navigation service and on roadside electronic signboards through this year's four-day break.","date":"2026-09-16","source":"https://en.nocutnews.co.kr/news/6578959"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Construction site worker","org":"Daewoo Engineering and Construction","text":"Daewoo Engineering and Construction has switched on AI translation on construction sites across all its South Korean locations. Spoken Korean safety orders reach each labourer in their mother tongue as uttered, as screen text and synthesised voice. Trials of real-time site interpreting caught Korean speech at nearly 95% accuracy.","date":"2026-09-15","source":"https://www.newsbreak.com/upi-news-510013/4887185470787-daewoo-e-c-deploys-ai-translator-to-protect-foreign-workers"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Production engineer","org":"LG Display","text":"AX SQUAD, LG Display's scheme for turning ordinary staff into AI builders, has already produced roughly 450 applications tackling problems workers spot in their own jobs. Around 190 of those live inside manufacturing alone, covering defect classification plus an optical simulation tool still being built and a human resources survey system, showing how far employee-built AI applications have spread beyond IT departments. Reach will grow further from the second half of 2026, when the South Korean firm folds in procurement, supply chain, customer support, finance, management, sales and marketing, extending workplace AI automation well past its original manufacturing and development base.","date":"2026-09-13","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/09/13/lg-display-expands-ai-program-letting-non-coders-build-apps"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Procurement officer","org":"Public Procurement Service of Korea","text":"Seven homegrown systems deliver AI in government procurement across South Korea's Public Procurement Service: procurement-law guidance, press release and remarks drafting, document automation, National Assembly task tracking, and workflow automation. A 26-person internal team built these AI-driven public sector automation tools since February 2026 via 'vibe coding', letting non-programmers specify requirements conversationally. Commissioner Baek Seung-bo unveiled the outcomes.","date":"2026-09-11","source":"https://www.newswhoplus.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=69499"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Transport & Logistics","region":"South Korea","role":"Logistics safety manager","org":"Hanjin","text":"Major safety breaches have fallen roughly 60% at Hanjin Logistics sites running AI Safety Guardian, an AI camera system for warehouse safety now active across about 20 logistics terminals. CCTV feeds are scanned for staff crossing conveyor belts, vehicles flouting site rules, cars blocking pedestrian walkways and unworn hard hats; violations trigger flashing lights, voice warnings and a text alert to safety managers, delivering surveillance-based hazard alerts in real time. Ten locations near greater Seoul launched first, in late July, before expansion into Chungcheong, Gangwon and other outlying regions.","date":"2026-09-11","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/09/11/hanjin-rolls-out-ai-cameras-to-flag-safety-risks-at"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Water rescue crew","org":"Seoul Metropolitan Government","text":"Seoul Metropolitan Government will spend 2.8 billion won (US$2.1 million) on an AI emergency response system for the city's waterways. Twenty-four audio sensors on bridge pillars pick out screams, impacts and splashes, fix a person within 10 metres and relay acoustic rescue alerts over private 5G in three seconds. A drone lifts off inside 60 seconds; Banpo Bridge takes an October trial before November's full launch. Fire brigade records count 1,272 suicide attempts on the Han River's 31 bridges during 2024.","date":"2026-09-10","source":"https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/20260910/eyes-above-the-water-seoul-deploys-physical-ai-to-prevent-han-river-tragedies"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Civil servant","org":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety","text":"South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety will grant promotion points, cash and lecture fees to officials wielding AI tools in the civil service. Beneath it sits the AI Government Lab, running since July, where staff build prototypes by talking to a coder; the ministry plans to lift its ceiling from 200 seats to 6,000. Government AI development logs 2,073 builders and 770 projects, 376 shared, chasing 20,000 AI Champions, near 2% of administrative and public-institution employees, by 2030.","date":"2026-09-08","source":"https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10866451"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Complaints counsellor","org":"Korea Life Insurance Association","text":"The Korea Life Insurance Association has introduced AI complaint handling alongside AI review of advertising and internal regulations. Speech-to-text transcribes consumer–counsellor calls live, classifies each complaint type and gives counsellors supporting material mid-call. Three applications went live this month, and the association aims for 17 projects, including translation, contract review and legal review, during 2027.","date":"2026-09-07","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/09/07/korea-life-insurance-association-adopts-ai-for-complaint"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"South Korea","role":"Stadium operations staff","org":"KT","text":"KT now runs AI stadium operations daily at Suwon KT Wiz Park, from facial-recognition entry and synthetic-voice announcements to motion-recognition fan cameras and live translation for foreign spectators. KT says entry, previously 50 to 60 seconds a person with bag checks, is about 30 seconds faster, more than halving delays. Foreign spectators' attendance share rose 57% in the first half against a year earlier after translation launched.","date":"2026-09-06","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/09/06/kt-deploys-ai-at-baseball-park-to-curb-scalping-translate"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Transport & Logistics","region":"South Korea","role":"Warehouse packer","org":"CJ Logistics","text":"CJ Logistics has deployed a pair of dual-arm humanoid robots for live packing at the Olive Young logistics centre in Yangji, Yongin, marking its debut for humanoid robots in logistics. The dual-arm machines slot cushioning into boxes as orders are packed, and the company plans to extend them to inspection, sorting and picking while feeding site data back into training their control models.","date":"2026-09-03","source":"https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/business/companies/20260903/cj-logistics-deploys-humanoid-robots-at-warehouses-in-korea"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Marketing & Creative","region":"South Korea","org":"Korea Fair Trade Commission","text":"The Korea Fair Trade Commission's amended notice on substantiating labelling and advertising claims took effect on 3 September 2026, requiring prior substantiation for AI advertising claims and other new-technology claims about products. The extension for filing substantiation material shrinks from 30 days to 15, granted only on narrower grounds such as receivership, a merger, natural disaster or seized records. Firms failing to file can be ordered to pull the advertisement.","date":"2026-09-02","source":"https://www.koit.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=208802"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","role":"Claims reviewer","org":"Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service","text":"Korea's Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) has started AI claims review for knee osteoarthritis, applying AI-generated medical image readings. This is HIRA's first AI use within the review of claims, going beyond clinical decision support, and human reviewers keep responsibility for each final decision.","date":"2026-09-01","source":"https://www.koreaittimes.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=156820"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Customer-service agent","org":"Woori Bank","text":"Woori Bank has hired KT to rebuild its chatbot and advisory bot as AI agents in banking, linked to its 'AI Banker' financial consultation service through KT's Agent Connector so customer context follows across channels. KT has started development, aiming at sharper intent recognition and AI in outbound calls and branch consultations.","date":"2026-08-31","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/technology/2026/08/31/kt-to-rebuild-woori-banks-ai-chatbot-and-consultation-bot"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Citizen-services officer","org":"Ministry of Science and ICT","text":"South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT has picked SK Telecom, KT and Kakao from six applicants to lead consortia for citizen AI services: a general-purpose chatbot and AI agents for complex public administrative procedures. Agreements follow in September, nationwide launch targets end-2026 after beta tests, and the ministry will supply the three with 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs this year.","date":"2026-08-28","source":"https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/business/sk-telecom-kakao-and-kt-chosen-for-public-ai-service-project/12849094"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"South Korea","role":"Merchandiser","org":"Lotte Department Store","text":"Lotte Department Store's in-house 'Brand AI' analyses more than 4,000 brands for AI merchandising strategy and emerging-brand scouting, the company says. Launched in late July 2026, it processes the data buyers need into visuals, with a natural-language chatbot due in the second half of 2026.","date":"2026-08-26","source":"https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/08/26/lotte-department-store-rolls-out-ai-to-scout-new-brands"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Bae, Kim & Lee","text":"Bae, Kim & Lee has handed OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise to its whole membership, a first among large Korean law firms for an enterprise AI product. Lawyers will use it for legal research, drafting, condensing bulk material, checking foreign laws and regulations and brainstorming, with generative AI running beside Harvey, already used firm-wide.","date":"2026-08-05","source":"https://www.etoday.co.kr/news/view/2611456"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Bae, Kim & Lee","text":"Bae, Kim & Lee has given every member Harvey, a global legal AI platform, the first Korean firm to build one into firm-wide infrastructure. Strong use and efficiency in legal research, document drafting and analysing multilingual material led to this rollout of legal AI at scale.","date":"2026-07-02","source":"https://www.segye.com/newsView/20260702500116"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","org":"Financial Services Commission","text":"FSC revised its Financial Sector Artificial Intelligence Guidelines, covering AI governance in financial services, effective 22 June 2026. Seven principles anchor the framework: governance, legality, subsidiarity, reliability, financial stability, good faith, security — subsidiarity keeps executives accountable for algorithm-assisted decisions, not the AI system. FSS issued a companion AI Risk Management Framework covering AI risk management practices for banks; Korea Financial Security Institute released its own AI Security Guide.","date":"2026-06-22","source":"https://www.fsc.go.kr/eng/pr010101/87140"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","role":"Hospital doctor","org":"Ministry of Health and Welfare","text":"Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare will introduce AI patient referral and return in hospitals during the latter half of the year, beginning with pilots in Seoul and Gyeonggi, Gangwon and South Jeolla. Linking AI directly to each hospital's picture archiving and electronic medical record systems will automate sending patients onward and back where care happens. The broader Healthcare AI Transformation Sprint programme begins in June.","date":"2026-05-28","source":"https://www.newsis.com/view/NISX20260528_0003648191"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Litigators","org":"Lee & Ko","text":"Lee & Ko hosts eLK, an in-house legal AI, on GPU servers cut off from the internet so client material stays put. Korean litigation papers for foreign clients reach English, French or Chinese through eLK in hours, not days, with review included, lawyer Kwak Jae-woo told Newspim.","date":"2026-04-18","source":"https://www.newspim.com/news/view/20260416001161"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Yulchon","text":"Yulchon lawyers ask AI:Yul, a legal AI search service built with BHSN, and get statutes, rulings and precedents in one pass. It merges BHSN's case-law and scholarly databases with Yulchon's knowledge system. Every answer links to its source, lawyer Seok Ji-woon told Newspim.","date":"2026-04-18","source":"https://www.newspim.com/news/view/20260416001161"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Kim & Chang","text":"Kim & Chang handles bulk document translation on a proprietary AI translation system that keeps every file inside the firm. Client confidentiality is fully protected and global work capacity grows, an unnamed Kim & Chang official told Newspim.","date":"2026-04-18","source":"https://www.newspim.com/news/view/20260416001161"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyers","org":"Shin & Kim (Sejong)","text":"Shin & Kim (Sejong) has used Harvey since early 2026 for English contract reviews and foreign statute analysis on cross-border work, beside its own RAG-based system launched in December 2024 and still being upgraded. Managing partner Oh Jong-han calls AI an aid to lawyers' judgement.","date":"2026-04-10","source":"https://www.sisajournal.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=369070"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"National AI Strategy Committee","text":"South Korea's National AI Strategy Committee (국가인공지능전략위원회) passed a three-year national AI regulation blueprint: 99 implementation tasks, 326 policy recommendations, under Article 6 of the AI Basic Act. The 'Korea AI Action Plan (2026~2028)' (대한민국 인공지능행동계획) rests on three pillars — AI innovation ecosystem, nationwide AI-based transformation, global AI basic society — across 12 domains, including infrastructure, industry and public AX, talent, and global AI governance policy.","date":"2026-02-25","source":"https://v.daum.net/v/20260225160103349"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Judges","org":"National Court Administration (Supreme Court of Korea)","text":"Korea's judiciary is piloting an in-house generative AI system that answers legal questions from judges and court staff. Answers draw on Supreme Court precedents and rulings, statutes, court rules, official interpretations, practice manuals and commentaries, and the courts expect the judicial AI tool to make precedent searches much quicker.","date":"2026-02-13","source":"https://www.hankyung.com/article/202602134488i"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Government of the Republic of Korea","text":"South Korea's AI Basic Act, formally the Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of Trust, came into force on 22 January 2026. Generative AI operators must label AI-made content, and high-impact AI operators must summarise training data and meaningfully explain results, including the main criteria and principles behind them. Foreign AI firms with no Korean office must appoint a local agent past set revenue or daily-user thresholds, and administrative fines wait out a one-year grace period.","date":"2026-01-22","source":"https://www.cooley.com/news/insight/2026/2026-01-27-south-koreas-ai-basic-act-overview-and-key-takeaways"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"National Assembly","text":"South Korea created the Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy under Act No. 20676, formally titled the Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and the Creation of a Foundation for Trust, also called the AI Basic Act. This South Korea AI regulation forces disclosure rules onto generative and high-impact systems, orders safety checks for high-performance models, and funds industry and research growth. Ten sensitive fields fall under its reach — healthcare, employment, credit and public safety among them — anchoring a wider AI governance framework signed into law 21 January 2025.","date":"2026-01-22","source":"https://www.law.go.kr/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=268543"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Central bank analyst","org":"Bank of Korea","text":"The Bank of Korea runs BOKI, an in-house AI system, on its internal business network, where staff dig through the bank's document archive, even reading tables and graphs from reports. Data never leaves the building, a design built with Naver Cloud after a late-2023 tie-up, reportedly making it the world's first central bank to build and run internal AI this way.","date":"2026-01","source":"https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/economy/2026/01/25/20260125500031"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Tax counsellor","org":"National Tax Service of Korea","text":"Korea's National Tax Service has offered taxpayers a generative AI tax chatbot since January 2026, first for VAT returns and year-end tax settlement, widening it from 1 May to comprehensive income tax filing and incentive claims. It sits beside an AI telephone consultation line and AI search in the Hometax portal, public-facing first. The NTS plans to extend AI from taxpayer services to tax-base management and audits across all tax administration.","date":"2026-01","source":"https://www.korea.kr/news/policyNewsView.do?newsId=156757496"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","text":"South Korea is spending ₩1.4 trillion (about US$960 million) on AI talent development in 2026: ₩900 billion for elementary and middle schools and ₩500 billion for high schools. AI-focused schools will expand from 730 to 2,000 by 2028, and vocational high-school departments offering AI courses from 20% to 50% by 2030.","date":"2026","source":"https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10612847"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"South Korea","role":"Customer service agent","org":"LG Uplus","text":"LG Uplus released Agentic Callbot, South Korea's first subscription-based AI customer service callbot, using OpenAI's generative AI. Instead of pre-programmed scenarios, agentic AI reads customer intent and conversational context to resolve complex inquiries. The automated call handling links to applications in manufacturing, distribution, hospitals and universities.","date":"2025-12-16","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025121608152587943"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","role":"Emergency physicians","org":"Severance Hospital","text":"Y-KNOT, an AI emergency department discharge notes system built by a Yonsei University College of Medicine team, finishes Severance Hospital's mandatory ED paperwork in 32 seconds, down from 69.5 seconds when clinicians handle it unaided. This AI-assisted discharge documentation combines an internal large language model with a compact transformer, operating fully inside the hospital's own network so patient records stay put. Human reviewers scored the machine-drafted text above manually written versions for thoroughness, accuracy, brevity and practical value, per findings in JAMA Network Open.","date":"2025-12-04","source":"https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=29852"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Factory worker","org":"HL Mando","text":"A South Korean-built humanoid, A-Robot's Alice M1, now works HL Mando's Wonju plant floor, a humanoid robot manufacturing test backed by the M.AX programme. It handles dull jobs staff dodge. First homegrown humanoid at a major domestic factory, a milestone for robotics for industrial settings.","date":"2025-12-02","source":"https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20251202162140"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Retail banking customer","org":"KakaoBank","text":"South Korea's largest internet-only bank switched on AI money transfer banking on 24 November 2025, letting a spoken phrase like \"Mom, 300,000 won\" replace manually keyed recipient details. KakaoBank's app accepts that instruction by voice or text, with speech recognition active on Apple hardware — a first among domestic financial firms.","date":"2025-11-24","source":"https://www.khan.co.kr/en/article/202511241639537"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Civil servants","org":"Ministry of Science and ICT / Ministry of Public Administration and Security","text":"Hundreds of thousands of civil servants in South Korea can now tap private-sector AI tools inside government networks under a new AI common base service government employees jointly built by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. Samsung SDS and Naver Cloud built the first two chatbot tools running on this shared system, with further models set to join in the coming year. Officials say the arrangement will stop agencies from separately funding overlapping AI projects, folding access into a single intelligent work-management platform as part of broader AI adoption in public administration nationwide.","date":"2025-11-24","source":"https://www.fnnews.com/news/202511241407486644"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Police officer","org":"National Police Agency","text":"Kicks AI investigation support for police now reaches 35,000 South Korean officers nationwide via the National Police Agency. The chatbot condenses paperwork, converts foreign-language text, retrieves records, flags prior cases, and drafts warrant requests — embedding generative AI in law enforcement routines.","date":"2025-11-17","source":"https://www.mk.co.kr/en/society/11470327"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","role":"Doctors","org":"Seoul St Mary's Hospital","text":"A new AI voice recognition medical records system, CMC GenNote, is being trialled at Seoul St Mary's Hospital, built with PuzzleAI on LLM-based large language model technology. Rather than simple dictation, the tool lets doctors summon documentation templates and dictate entries directly into them, replacing the transcription-only setup in place since 2019. Currently limited to certain outpatient clinics, the rollout is set to reach surgical suites, emergency departments and general wards next, marking a step toward AI-powered clinical documentation by voice.","date":"2025-10-27","source":"https://www.bosa.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=2261153"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"South Korea","role":"Retail shopper","org":"Hyundai Department Store","text":"Hyundai Department Store's generative AI shopping assistant HEYDI (Hyundai Personalized Lifestyle Design AI) is now live across every branch, outlet, website and mobile app in South Korea, following a phased rollout that began with foreign shoppers in July 2025 before reaching domestic customers three months later. The tool interprets natural conversation to suggest stores, restaurants, pop-ups and exhibitions matched to individual tastes, and can handle layered queries like gift ideas or planning a shopping route. The nationwide version merges both customer groups into a single integrated service, marking a shift from its earlier limited release toward full retail AI personalisation.","date":"2025-10-19","source":"https://www.etnews.com/20251019000018"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Ministry of the Interior and Safety","text":"By 2030, 2 myung (20,000) civil servants will hold \"AI champion\" status under a new South Korean certification scheme spanning Green, Blue, and Black tiers, designed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to embed AI in government work. Demand emerged early: a 220-seat pilot logged 770 applications. Public institutions now get shared access to the ministry's AI literacy curriculum, and completion figures feed directly into staff performance reviews.","date":"2025-09-24","source":"https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250924087400530"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Insurance claims adjuster","org":"KB Insurance","text":"South Korea's KB Insurance runs an AI agent car accident fault assessment tool, calculating fault ratios for reported crashes via automated liability determination instead of manual guideline checks. Called the Automobile Accident Fault Ratio AI Agent, the generative AI system reads claim details and assigns splits alone, speeding claims and payouts.","date":"2025-09-18","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025091808302961098"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"South Korea","role":"Customer service agent","org":"CJ Onstyle","text":"CJ Onstyle's live shopping chatbot AiON, co-built with AWS's GenAI Innovation Centre, tripled reply speed and scored 85.7% satisfaction in a 'Transit Beauty' mobile broadcast trial. The live commerce assistant sorts viewer messages into five types — delivery, product, authentication and order — answering in under 10 seconds on average. Six top channels received it first.","date":"2025-09-15","source":"https://www.newsis.com/view/NISX20250915_0003328664"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy","text":"South Korea now runs national AI policy through one presidential body: the Presidential Council on National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (국가인공지능전략위원회), under President Lee Jae-myung. As top AI governance authority, it sets overall strategy, coordinates ministries, and tracks implementation. Its 34 private-sector members split into 8 subcommittees: industry AX, public AX, tech/infrastructure, data, society, global ties, talent, defence/security.","date":"2025-09-08","source":"https://www.ddaily.co.kr/page/view/2025090814251680286"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Construction engineers","org":"GS Engineering & Construction","text":"GS E&C is first among South Korean builders to adopt ChatGPT Enterprise, spreading AI in construction into contract checks, drawing analysis, cost forecasting and technical review. OpenAI staff visited Seoul to demonstrate embedding the tool into site workflows. A GPT Champion scheme from September trains staff as specialists to widen construction sites AI use cases.","date":"2025-08-26","source":"https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250826063900003"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Insurance claims adjuster","org":"Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance","text":"Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in South Korea now applies AI claims review medical insurance processing, automating cancer diagnosis checks and surgery benefit payouts. Generative AI with optical character recognition scans records up to 48 pages, extracting data from diagnosis paperwork and lab results without manual work. The insurer reports faster, more accurate claims processing.","date":"2025-08-21","source":"https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/economy/20250821/more-insurers-embrace-ai-to-bolster-efficiency"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Energy plant worker","org":"Korea Southern Power (KOSPO)","text":"Korea Southern Power (KOSPO Evolving Mind Innovation) flipped the switch on generative AI public institution tool KEMI on 26 August 2025, marking what officials call South Korea's first such deployment inside a state-run body. Konan Technology co-engineered the platform, letting workers tap sensitive files - plant operations, energy policy, admin workflows - purely in-house, keeping outside leakage out. A companion avatar, Joy, guides consultations and delivers safety coaching, feeding a broader shift toward generative AI in the public sector.","date":"2025-08","source":"https://www.etnews.com/20250828000133"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Personal Information Protection Commission","text":"Chief Ko Hak-su's Personal Information Protection Commission in South Korea introduced its \"Guidelines on Personal Data Processing for Generative AI\", targeting AI data privacy compliance across how generative systems handle personal information from concept to deployment. Four sequential phases structure the document: defining purpose, mapping strategy, building and training models, then applying and managing them — each carrying baseline protections and lawful-basis tests for training data. A designated chief privacy officer anchors accountability throughout, reflecting wider generative AI governance goals that weigh innovation against individual data rights.","date":"2025-08-06","source":"https://pipc.go.kr/np/cop/bbs/selectBoardArticle.do?bbsId=BS074&mCode=C020010000&nttId=11410"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"South Korea","role":"Customer service agent","org":"KT","text":"Five seconds off every call and 4,500 staff-hours reclaimed monthly: that's KT's payoff from an AI customer service deployment running its own generative AI model, Mi:um, across KT, K Bank and KT M Mobile. Wrap-up paperwork, once a third or more of an agent's shift, now takes barely 3%, KT says.","date":"2025-07-30","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025073009183804420"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"HR & People","region":"South Korea","role":"Job seeker","org":"Ministry of Employment and Labor","text":"Job seekers using Work-Net, the AI job matching platform run by South Korea's Ministry of Employment and Labor, secured over 87,000 placements across the first half of 2025 — an 84% jump against the equivalent stretch in 2024. Matching candidates against openings via analysis of resumes, work history and career goals, the system also produced a wage gap: workers placed through its recommendations took home 120,000 won more each month than those who landed jobs unassisted. Come September, the ministry adds four further AI capabilities to the platform, including an aptitude test built around the individual and a tool projecting employment probability, extending its AI recruitment matching capacity.","date":"2025-07-23","source":"https://www.ajupress.com/view/20250723145718543"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Judges","org":"Supreme Court of Korea","text":"A W14.5 billion contract has gone to a KT-led consortium tasked with building South Korea's Supreme Court AI platform for judges, an AI-assisted judicial platform designed to accelerate legal research, pull case issues automatically and support judgment drafting. KT's proprietary legal-specialised language model, layered atop Mideum 2.0, drives the roughly four-year build, joined by partners Conan Technology, Elbox and MT Data. Shrinking case backlogs and sharper judicial output count among the hoped-for gains, per the court's own internal forecast rather than any independently verified result.","date":"2025-07-21","source":"https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250721028000017"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"South Korea","role":"Doctors","org":"Hallym University Medical Center","text":"Doctors at Hallym University Medical Center will gain back 20 to 30 working days each year, thanks to a generative AI platform called HAI (Hallym Artificial Intelligence) that now handles AI medical records duties across the whole hospital stay, from a patient's arrival to their release. Built in partnership with Konan Technology, HAI pulls together 97 distinct categories of clinical information and is forecast to eliminate about 83,000 hours of manual charting work per year. So far it handles five conditions - stroke, gallbladder inflammation, caesarean delivery, cataract procedures and tonsil removal - operating on a locally hosted LLM rather than a cloud service, which keeps sensitive health information from leaving the hospital, an approach that supports broader AI clinical documentation goals in hospital settings.","date":"2025-07-15","source":"https://www.thehallym.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=4769"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Education & Training","region":"South Korea","role":"Teacher","org":"KAIST","text":"KAIST runs a retrieval-augmented Virtual Teaching Assistant (VTA) for 477 students on its Programming for Artificial Intelligence course, an AI teaching assistant mining lecture slides, assignments and recorded lectures for 24/7, evidence-based answers. Over half the cohort used it regularly, racking up nearly 3,870 Q&A exchanges, while questions reaching human TAs fell roughly 40% year on year. KAIST has open-sourced the code, extending this virtual tutoring model beyond its own campus.","date":"2025-06-05","source":"https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10505878"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"South Korea","role":"Retail marketing analyst","org":"Lotte Department Store","text":"A 70% drop in customer analysis time within one month followed Lotte Department Store's rollout of BI Agent, an AI-powered BI system layered on Strategy One, the generative platform from Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy). Wired into existing customer-data tools, it lets untrained staff pose questions in plain wording rather than code, extending AI-driven business intelligence into routine retail choices. Work once needing specialist skill, like cohort and relationship studies, now runs directly under marketers at stores and head office.","date":"2025-05-29","source":"https://www.mk.co.kr/en/business/11355254"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","role":"Customs officer","org":"Korea Customs Service","text":"South Korea's Korea Customs Service is building an AI risk management for express cargo tool, formally named the \"AI Risk Management System for Express Cargo and International Postal Items,\" to catch narcotics and other banned goods moving through overseas direct-purchase parcels. The system will score declaration filings and detection records for risk in real time, applying AI-based customs risk screening for parcels at scale. Work should wrap by end of 2025, ahead of use at clearance checkpoints starting January 2026.","date":"2025-05-28","source":"https://www.asiae.co.kr/en/article/2025052808065918570"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"South Korea","role":"Bankers","org":"KB Financial Group","text":"KB Financial Group has switched on KB GenAI Portal, an agentic AI banking platform giving staff across its eight subsidiaries the tools to build and run their own AI agents for financial services—a first for South Korea's financial industry. No-code and low-code options let non-programmers build agents too, alongside a pro-level track. Roughly 90 agents across 17 business lines, covering wealth management, retail and corporate banking, are due within three years, with advisory, client relations and support agents already underway.","date":"2025-05-15","source":"https://www.inthenews.co.kr/news/article.html?no=72319"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","role":"Lawyer","org":"Sejong Law Firm","text":"South Korean law firm Sejong, ranked among the country's top five, now applies AI legal research via Harvey AI, an OpenAI-based legal generative AI tool, in a pilot running since April 2025 for chosen advisory matters. Overseas assignments involving bulky document sets rely on it most: hunting for precedents and regulations, drafting contract wording, and condensing due diligence files. This counts among the earliest legal AI research assistant rollouts in South Korea.","date":"2025-04","source":"https://www.hankyung.com/article/2025042157811"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Media, Telecom & Entertainment","region":"South Korea","role":"Broadcast producers","org":"KBS","text":"South Korea's KBS has proclaimed 2025 the launch year for its AI broadcasting push, weaving automated tools into news, animation and emergency alerts. A synthetic-voiced radio host now anchors bulletins on KBS Hanminjok Broadcasting, and a generative AI animation series draws on the classic horror drama 'Legend of the Hometown'. Since 2023 the broadcaster has run a CCTV network of roughly 12,000 cameras nationwide to catch earthquakes and floods automatically, a setup now broadened for AI-powered TV production so wildfires trigger the same automatic alerts. KBS has additionally drafted an ethics guideline steering how artificial intelligence gets used across its content.","date":"2025-03-04","source":"https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250304055800005"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Agriculture & Food","region":"South Korea","role":"Farmer","org":"Gyeonggi Agricultural Technology Institute","text":"South Korea gets its first AI smart farming pilot as Gyeonggi Agricultural Technology Institute pairs orbital imagery with machine analysis across 120 rice paddies growing the province's 'Younjin' variety and 50 fields under the Yeoncheon soybean research association. Sharpness is the selling point: satellites resolve ground detail down to 0.7 metres, four times finer than the 3m benchmark previously used, feeding growers near-instant readings on how crops are developing — a precision agriculture approach the institute hopes to expand. No results from the trial have surfaced yet, and the provincial body has not said when a wider rollout might follow.","date":"2025-02-25","source":"https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/2025022509235303313"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"HR & People","region":"South Korea","role":"HR professional","org":"SK C&C","text":"Four hours: that is how long SK C&C's new AI recruitment platform now needs to sift a stack of job applications that used to take a week. Co-built with SK Telecom, A.Biz HR applies an AI capability test (AICT) gauging each applicant's technical grasp, problem-solving and readiness for the job, and now runs across entry-level and junior hiring at the South Korean firm's AI hiring system. Since an internal trial went well, bosses will next bolt on AI talent search and recommendation tools, due later this year.","date":"2025-02-20","source":"https://www.m-i.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=1209639"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"South Korea","org":"Court Artificial Intelligence Research Society","text":"Judges behind South Korea's Court Artificial Intelligence Research Society drafted \"Guidelines on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Judiciary\", a five-chapter framework addressing AI use in the judiciary. Bias and hallucination risks for judges applying such tools sit alongside rules on adopting the technology and duties for litigants to flag artificial intelligence in judicial work whenever they file submissions.","date":"2025-02","source":"https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=206047"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Manufacturing, Energy & Resources","region":"South Korea","role":"Power plant operators","org":"Korea Western Power","text":"Korea Western Power trained WP-GPT on 1,432 internal documents and roughly 35,000 Q&A records, becoming the first of South Korea's state-run power generators using generative AI for power plant maintenance. WP-GPT covers maintenance, procurement, construction and safety queries, running on a fully internet-isolated network to stop data leaks. By year-end, the plant maintenance chatbot is due to draft procurement specifications and equipment management reports too.","date":"2025-01-20","source":"https://www.todayenergy.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=278895"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Business Operations","region":"South Korea","role":"Accountant","org":"Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants (KICPA)","text":"South Korea's Korean Institute of Certified Public Accountants (KICPA) unveiled ChatCPA, a beta member tool delivering AI accounting and tax help via a large language model. Cited answers pull from Korean International Financial Reporting Standards (K-IFRS), prior inquiry records, plus relevant tax rulings and precedents. Members gain an AI-assisted tax research helper with built-in source traceability.","date":"2025-01-03","source":"https://www.newsis.com/view/NISX20250103_0003019545"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Personal Information Protection Commission","text":"South Korea's PIPC has issued a voluntary, CPO-centred 'AI Privacy Risk Management Model' covering AI systems that touch personal data, spanning design, data gathering, build, rollout, use and shutdown. Organisational and technical safeguards plus ongoing oversight apply throughout. This AI Privacy Risk approach backs wider personal information protection in AI systems, though adoption stays optional.","date":"2024-12","source":"https://regulations.ai/regulations/RAI-KR-NA-APRMMXX-2024"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"South Korea","org":"Ministry of Science and ICT","text":"MSIT built South Korea's national AI policy on 100 tasks across 9 strategies spanning AI ecosystem, AI utilisation, and people-centred AI. Cabinet adopted this as the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, slogan 'Toward AI World Leader beyond IT', targeting competitiveness and living standards by 2030 — marking AI adoption in South Korea as a cross-ministry drive.","date":"2019-12-17","source":"https://www.msit.go.kr/eng/bbs/view.do?bbsSeqNo=46&mId=10&mPid=9&nttSeqNo=9&sCode=eng"}]}