South Korea may face less immediate job disruption from generative artificial intelligence than other members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
But its workers and businesses could also miss out on much of the technology’s productivity boost.
According to a report released by the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Korea ranked 33rd out of the 34 OECD countries analyzed in terms of the share of jobs highly exposed to generative AI.
An estimated 34 percent of jobs in Korea are highly exposed to the technology, well below the more than 60 percent recorded for Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. Only Colombia ranked lower.
The report analyzed the OECD’s Employment Outlook 2026, which measures how exposed occupations are to generative AI based on the tasks workers perform.
The institute largely attributed Korea’s relatively low exposure to its heavy reliance on manufacturing. Such jobs typically involve fewer tasks that can be performed or supported by today’s generative AI systems compared with occupations in office-based service industries.
According to the National Assembly Budget Office, manufacturing accounted for 27 percent of Korea’s gross domestic product in 2025, the second-highest share among OECD members. The figure was significantly higher than Germany’s 19.9 percent and Japan’s 19 percent.
The country's industrial structure may therefore reduce direct displacement pressure in the near term.
A separate Korea Development Institute study estimated that AI could replace the equivalent of about 256,000 workers annually over the next decade. That is well below the projected annual decline of about 390,000 in Korea’s working-age population.
However, limited exposure to generative AI also raises concerns that Korea could miss out on the productivity gains the technology can offer if adoption remains slow in occupations where it can most effectively complement workers.
The OECD cited estimates that AI could raise annual aggregate productivity growth by 0.25 to 0.6 percentage point over the next decade. The estimate was not specific to Korea.
Nam Chang-woo, a senior research fellow at the Korea Development Institute, said the government should encourage investment to help businesses realize AI’s productivity potential while easing labor market disruptions in occupations most exposed to the technology.
In a report released earlier this month, he also called for expanding public cloud infrastructure and shared GPU centers to lower barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises, while building data-sharing platforms to facilitate AI adoption.
forestjs@heraldcorp.com