Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index: South Korea Drops to 8th Place
China Surges to 6th, Driven by Infrastructure Competitiveness
South Korea's national competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI) is reportedly lagging behind global leaders, particularly in terms of practical computing infrastructure and public sector adoption. Notably, China, which had fallen significantly behind South Korea until last year, has now surpassed it by leveraging its self-sustaining infrastructure, rapidly reshaping the landscape of AI powerhouses.
According to the "2025 Government AI Readiness Index" by the UK technology policy institute Oxford Insights, released on December 22, South Korea ranked 8th out of 195 countries worldwide. This represents a drop of five places in just one year, compared to last year when South Korea ranked 3rd globally with an average score of 79.98 points, following the United States and Singapore.
The Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index is regarded as one of the world’s top three AI indicators, alongside the "AI Index" by Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI) and the "Global AI Index" by Tortoise Media in the UK. In particular, this index is highly valued as a policy reference because it evaluates a government’s capacity to design and operate AI at the national system level, rather than focusing on technological prowess or private investment scale.
Until last year, the index primarily assessed how prepared governments were to introduce and utilize AI in public services. However, this year’s index underwent a major overhaul, comprehensively examining the government’s overall role, including AI infrastructure, public sector adoption, industry diffusion, and resilience. As a result, it became clear that South Korea’s AI strategy needs to shift from a focus on institutions and vision to one centered on national infrastructure and execution capabilities.
According to the "2025 Government AI Readiness Index" by the UK technology policy institute Oxford Insights, South Korea remained in 8th place, dropping five ranks from the previous year. Image source=Oxford Insights
A closer look at the detailed categories reveals both the strengths and weaknesses of South Korea’s AI sector. In the "policy capability" category, South Korea scored an impressive 96 points. This is higher than the United States, which ranked first overall with 92.50 points, and is the second-highest score among the top-ranked countries, following the United Kingdom, which achieved a perfect score of 100. In the "resilience" category, which measures social risk management and stability, South Korea also received 84.99 points (3rd globally), demonstrating world-class stability. The "development and diffusion" category, which reflects industrial maturity, also remained in the top tier with 62.49 points (6th globally).
However, in the "AI infrastructure" category, which gauges practical capabilities, South Korea ranked 17th worldwide (63.37 points), the lowest among the countries ranked 1st to 8th overall. While competitors such as the United States (89.27 points), China (76.92 points), and Singapore (73.28 points) have made massive investments in computing power and data quality, South Korea’s infrastructure competitiveness has comparatively lagged behind. "Public sector adoption," which refers to the practical application of AI in government services, also fell to 30th globally (79.23 points), becoming a decisive factor in lowering the overall ranking. This suggests that while South Korea has mastered the strategic phase of setting AI as a national agenda and managing risks, it has not yet caught up with the global leaders in securing core computing resources and achieving widespread practical adoption in public services.
The most notable aspect of this year’s report is China’s rise. China, which ranked 23rd overall last year, soared to 6th place this year, overtaking South Korea. China received high marks in infrastructure and development for establishing an independent "sovereign AI stack" through Huawei’s Ascend chip ecosystem and over 140 billion dollars in national fund investment. European countries have also made remarkable progress. The United Kingdom (2nd), France (3rd), the Netherlands (4th), and Germany (5th) swept the top ranks with scores around 90 points in the newly strengthened governance and public sector adoption indicators.
Oxford Insights emphasized, "Governments must mobilize concrete measures to secure AI infrastructure in order to ensure the long-term stability of national AI utilization," adding, "Such success does not occur overnight."
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