Hankyung Association: "Serious Shortage of Korean AI Talent... Need to Establish a Control Tower"

South Korea has only 2,551 artificial intelligence (AI) specialists, accounting for just 0.5% of the global total, prompting calls to benchmark the talent development and recruitment strategies of global AI powerhouses such as the United States and China.

On the 20th, the Korea Economic Association released a report titled "Strategies for Securing AI Talent in the US, China, and South Korea and Their Implications," commissioned to Park Dong, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training. The report revealed that South Korea's number of AI specialists stands at about 0.5% of the global total. Citing the "2020 Global AI Talent Report" published by Element AI, a leading AI research institution, the report pointed out that South Korea's 2,551 AI specialists rank 22nd among 30 countries surveyed worldwide, highlighting a severe shortage of AI experts in the country.

The top country is the United States, which has the most excellent universities, research institutions, and companies in the AI field. The US accounts for 39.4% (188,300 people) of the world's AI talent. India ranks second with 76,213 people (15.9%), followed by the United Kingdom with 35,401 people (7.4%), and China with 22,191 people (4.6%).

The report advised establishing a government-wide control tower to nurture AI talent in South Korea. In the US, the National Science and Technology Council is responsible for AI technology development strategies, while the Department of Education acts as the control tower for computer science and STEM education, which are foundational AI disciplines. Similarly, China’s State Council formulates national AI development plans, and the Ministry of Education implements talent development execution plans. In contrast, South Korea’s Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and Ministry of Employment and Labor each pursue policies independently, with local education offices also conducting fragmented projects.

The report also called for expanding AI education hours and securing teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools, along with increasing national investment to support these efforts. South Korea has mandated software education since 2018, with 17 hours for 5th and 6th graders, 34 hours over three years in middle school, and high school education offered as an elective, which has been criticized as being merely formal.

Furthermore, the report argued for strengthening policies to attract overseas talent to secure AI specialists. It pointed out that Korean AI experts are migrating to countries such as the US, China, Japan, and Germany, and emphasized the need for the private sector to offer high salaries and attractive research environments to recruit talent effectively.

In this regard, Choo Kwang-ho, Head of the Economic and Industrial Division at the Korea Economic Association, stated, “The industry urgently needs to resolve not only the quantitative shortage of AI talent but also the qualitative mismatch. It is necessary to secure many excellent professional instructors and develop advanced educational programs at each stage of elementary, middle, and high school to qualitatively upgrade basic AI education.”