[AI Hegemony War] Chronic Talent Shortage... Neither Nurtured Nor Recruited

Among 500 Global Key Talents, 1.4% Are from Korea... One-Tenth of China
Difficulty in Attraction Due to Salary and Corporate Culture
"Urgent Need to Train AI Convergence Specialists"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] One of the main reasons South Korea lags behind the United States, China, and Europe in the global artificial intelligence (AI) hegemony competition is a chronic shortage of talent. It is pointed out that the country should spare no national support in nurturing specialized personnel who integrate and research AI and related industries.

◆ Less than 2% of AI talent active in Korea = According to the Software Policy Research Institute on the 2nd, nearly 10,000 personnel will be lacking in the domestic AI software sector alone by next year.

Not only is the scale of AI specialists insufficient compared to competing countries, but the scale of attracting and utilizing excellent domestic and foreign talent is also low. According to a report published by the National Assembly Legislative Research Office in 2019 titled ‘Status and Implications of AI Technology Utilization Talent,’ among the world’s 500 core AI talents, only 1.4% were of Korean origin, which is one-tenth of the 14.6% of the United States ranked first and 13.0% of China ranked second.

Among the 22,400 AI specialists active worldwide, only 1.8% are active in Korea, which is even lower than India. The United States, where the largest number of personnel are active, accounts for 48% of the total workforce, followed by China with 11.3%.

This manpower shortage is interpreted as a result of an imbalance in supply and demand due to the rapid growth of the AI industry and slow progress in nurturing talent through educational institutions. The limited existing workforce tends to move overseas where there are high salaries and a freer corporate culture, while domestically, recycling of existing personnel is repeated, making it difficult to secure high-level talent that requires long hours of accumulated skills and knowledge.

◆ Government invests 1 trillion won... "AI+X talent needed" = The government also recognizes the shortage of AI specialists as serious and has begun restructuring the education system centered on software (SW) and AI. The Ministry of Science and ICT has prepared a ‘Plan to Nurture 100,000 Core AI and SW Talents’ this year and decided to invest about 1 trillion won by 2025.

Specifically, two additional AI graduate schools will be selected this year to nurture master’s and doctoral-level talents equipped with AI expertise and application capabilities, expanding the total to 10 schools. A new ‘AI Education and Research Hub’ will be established to serve as a focal point for open collaborative research among universities, companies, and research institutes, promoting large-scale advanced AI research and R&D-centered training of top-tier talents.

However, it is uncertain how effective these policies will be. As AI rapidly permeates various aspects of life such as healthcare and welfare, many expect that government policies alone will find it difficult to quickly meet talent demand. Academia points out that actively nurturing personnel who can industrialize AI technology and integrate it with other industries is necessary to offset the talent shortage. Choi Yang-hee, Chair of the AI Committee at Seoul National University, emphasized, "‘AI+X’ specialists who research by integrating AI with various fields such as finance, healthcare, gaming, and autonomous driving are most needed."

There are also calls for concentrated development policies to continuously raise the level of technology, application, and talent. The National Assembly Legislative Research Office stated in its report, "It is important to strategically utilize and nurture niche market strategies in areas where Korea has relative advantages, such as applied software," and added, "It is necessary to objectively evaluate the achievements and limitations of the related policies and strategies announced so far and to concretize the detailed implementation plans of the national AI strategy based on those results."