South Korea has embarked on an ambitious plan by launching the “AI for All” initiative, which aims to make artificial intelligence (AI) widely accessible to all its citizens. This initiative reflects a broader effort to integrate AI into almost every corner of Korean society. Rather than treating AI simply as another emerging technology, South Korea increasingly views it as a technology that will help realize its domestic economic development plans and geoeconomic objectives, retain its technological advantages in key strategic industries, and gain a strong foothold in emerging technologies amid intensifying technological competition.
The South Korean government plans to provide AI learning opportunities to approximately 5.14 million people in 2026. To support this initiative, it is developing AI services based on South Korea’s sovereign AI models, including a general-purpose AI chatbot that citizens will be able to use without charges or usage limits. More importantly, Seoul’s long-term ambition is to move toward an environment in which its citizens can have access to their own AI agents.
This plan can be understood as part of a broader trend among East Asian countries, particularly South Korea and China, toward emphasizing the rapid implementation and widespread application of AI. This approach reflects the distinction drawn by Kai-Fu Lee in his book “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order,” in which he contrasted China’s implementation-driven model with the innovation-first strategy associated with the United States. It also differs from the European approach, which places greater emphasis on AI governance, regulation, fundamental rights, and data privacy.
In many parts of the world, especially in liberal democracies, AI remains a subject of debate over safety concerns. In South Korea and other East Asian countries, however, the debate is different: it focuses on how rapidly AI can be deployed. The geoeconomic logic behind this approach is that rapid deployment will not only strengthen their positions in the AI ecosystem but also enable them to become future leaders.
South Korea views AI as one of the most promising next-generation growth engines and a strategic technology that will determine the country’s economic competitiveness. Seoul is learning from its historical experience, as the country’s growth has largely depended on technological upgrading and export-oriented manufacturing. Therefore, South Korea has linked AI to national survival, just as it did with semiconductors, which now form the backbone of the South Korean economy. South Korea’s strength in the semiconductor industry also supports its advancement in AI, as the expansion of AI is closely connected to growing demand in semiconductor-related sectors, including advanced memory, computing infrastructure, and AI chips.
A Shared National Commitment to AI
The continuing legacy of developmental state practices in South Korea has generated a unique level of commitment among the state, businesses, and society to realizing the country’s national ambitions. Historically, South Korea’s rapid technological advancement resulted from the state’s long-term planning, the establishment of national targets and industrial strategies, businesses’ active support and compliance, and, most importantly, society’s largely unopposed embrace of rapid, growth-oriented development. This national consensus prioritizes technological advancement and the fostering of key strategic industries over other considerations. The same pattern can clearly be observed in the case of AI.
In South Korea, political parties across the ideological spectrum support not only the rapid advancement of AI but also the goal of making the country a leading AI superpower. When the conservative government led by Yoon Suk-yeol was in power, South Korea set the ambitious goal of becoming one of the world’s top three AI powers, alongside the United States and China. The progressive government under Lee Jae-myung came to power in 2025 after Yoon was impeached, amid significant political conflict and turmoil involving conservative political forces. Nevertheless, one objective remained unchanged: South Korea’s national ambition to become a world-leading AI power. Therefore, a national consensus exists around realizing this ambition, regardless of changes in government and the high level of bipartisan political conflict within South Korea. That’s a consensus rarely seen in many liberal democracies.
The government’s ambition is also being reinforced by extensive business participation and, more importantly, growing societal demand for AI adoption. Frequent meetings between the government and business leaders are taking place in Seoul, with both sides agreeing that they must cooperate extensively to realize South Korea’s national ambitions.
Even more important is the growing social demand for AI implementation in South Korea. The general view is that rapid deployment will enable society to adopt AI more quickly, ultimately creating new opportunities for both the public and the country. According to a recent survey, almost seven out of ten South Koreans believe that AI services, deployed in collaboration with the government and corporations, will positively impact society.
This contrasts sharply with debates in Western liberal democracies, where AI adoption is often discussed in terms of privacy violations, job displacement, and other risks. Moreover, state-led AI planning is often viewed with greater suspicion in societies where anti-statist attitudes are more widespread. This does not mean that such concerns do not exist in South Korean society. However, many people appear to place these concerns within the broader context of the national priority of technological advancement and the belief that South Korea should not fall behind in the global AI race.
Deploying Developmental State Practices
In implementing its AI strategy, Seoul is deploying the practices of the developmental state, through which it previously achieved rapid technological advancement and built globally competitive strategic industries, including semiconductors and shipbuilding. Under this model, the state acts as a proactive planner, investor, and coordinator while collaborating closely with major domestic conglomerates.
Such practices are less common in neoliberal regulatory states, where proactive state intervention and close state–business collaboration – particularly with large corporations – are often viewed negatively. In South Korea, however, the state is actively fostering AI development in cooperation with major domestic companies. Meanwhile, many other countries, particularly liberal democracies, remain preoccupied with debates concerning AI regulation, oversight, and responsibility.
As a result, South Korea has moved far ahead in terms of large-scale investment in AI. While many parts of the world are waiting for, or heavily dependent on, private-sector investment in AI, the South Korean government is taking the lead in creating and expanding a substantial domestic AI market. One important example is South Korea’s decision to increase its national AI budget from 3.3 trillion won in 2025 to 10.1 trillion won in 2026 – almost three times the previous year’s allocation. This expansion occurred despite concerns about the country’s fiscal health. Such aggressive spending on a particular strategic industry also reflects South Korea’s developmental state philosophy of concentrating substantial resources on selected industries with high growth potential.
In addition to its investment role, the state is acting as a coordinator, which is another characteristic of developmental state practices. Under this model, state agencies play proactive roles as pilot agencies responsible for fostering strategic industries. For example, the Ministry of Science and ICT has been actively working with major conglomerates and other technology companies to establish consortia and accelerate AI development and implementation. This was evident in the ministry’s 2025 selection of five industry-led teams – Naver Cloud, Upstage, SK Telecom, NC AI, and LG AI Research – to develop sovereign foundation models.
More recently, the ministry selected three consortia, led respectively by SK Telecom, KT, and Kakao, to operate the “AI for All” project. In both initiatives, the ministry has acted as a pilot agency coordinating public and private actors around national strategic objectives.
This extensive collaboration is not limited to ministerial-level coordination. The government is also providing financial and material support to foster public–private partnerships. For example, to accelerate the implementation of “AI for All,” the South Korean government will provide the three selected consortia with access to up to 512 Nvidia B200 GPUs. Moreover, the government will subsidize part of the expenses involved in developing and operating these AI services.
The government will also finance public access by supporting the provision of AI chatbots to citizens without subscription fees or usage limits. Above all, participating companies will gain access to public service systems, enabling them to connect their chatbots with public AI agents that provide services related to taxation, healthcare appointments, education, and government support programs. Such access has generally remained restricted for private companies in many other parts of the world.
The Global Implications of South Korea’s AI Strategy
South Korea’s rapid deployment of AI across society offers several insights into the country’s political-economic approach to AI in particular and strategic industries more generally. By encouraging the widespread use of AI at an early stage, the government aims to create a large domestic market in which South Korean companies can develop, test, and improve their AI models, thereby supporting South Korea’s sovereign AI strategy. This approach strongly recalls the developmental state model that South Korea previously adopted to accelerate the growth of its strategic industries.
Indeed, South Korea’s lead in AI deployment is driven by a geoeconomic logic through which it seeks to maintain its technological advantages and become an AI superpower. More importantly, it reflects the deployment of developmental state practices, with the state playing a pivotal role and fostering collaboration with South Korea’s major technology companies to realize its national ambitions. Equally significant is the broad societal support for this state-business nexus in AI development. This is a distinctive feature carried over from South Korea’s developmental state era and is once again visible in its approach to AI deployment.
Nevertheless, a major challenge remains: how South Korea will address its shortage of AI talent. If South Korea is able to overcome this challenge, we may witness the emergence of a new technological power in the global AI race alongside the United States and China.
South Korea’s efforts to become one of the world’s top three AI powers also have global implications. If South Korea continues to compete with the U.S. and China for a leading position in AI, it would not be surprising to see a large number of South Korean AI companies, alongside American and Chinese firms, emerge as dominant players in the global market. As seen in today’s semiconductor industry, where companies from a small number of countries dominate and control key technologies, we may similarly witness the emergence of an AI landscape in which companies from only a few countries exercise extensive control, while the rest of the world remains primarily on the consumer side.
South Korea’s rapid deployment of AI across society is likely to place it among the first group of countries. The actions taken today are likely to produce results for countries actively developing AI, in contrast to the more passive approach currently adopted by many others. It should therefore not be surprising if South Korea emerges as a global AI leader in the near future.
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