# South Korea turns to AI as personnel shortage strains military medical system > Source: > Published: 2026-06-22 05:59:49+00:00 South Korea’s military has begun work on a plan to incorporate artificial intelligence into its medical system, as a sharp decline in military doctors raises concerns over the sustainability of its professional personnel-driven healthcare structure. According to military officials Monday, the Armed Forces Medical Command recently commissioned a policy research project to draw up a long-term development plan for AI-based military medicine. The move comes as the military faces growing pressure to overhaul its medical infrastructure amid a decline in the number of newly commissioned military doctors. The shortage has been driven in part by more medical students opting to serve as regular enlisted soldiers following the prolonged dispute between the government and the medical community, as well as a broader decline in available personnel caused by the country’s shrinking population. According to the Ministry of National Defense, 304 military doctors were commissioned this year, down about 56 percent from 692 a year earlier. The annual figure had remained at around 700 to 800 over the past five years. As a result, the military is expected to operate with roughly 400 fewer military doctors overall. At the same time, medical demand within the armed forces is believed to be increasing, largely due to eased standards for active-duty enlistment, which have led to a rise in service members requiring closer medical management. Military authorities assess that the current system, heavily dependent on professional medical personnel, is facing structural limits as workloads rise while available staff decline. The Armed Forces Medical Command said it plans to establish ways to standardize and integrate data used for military medical AI, identify priority tasks such as securing specialists and budgets, and prepare policy support measures. flylikekite@heraldcorp.com