South Korea near bottom in OECD AI job exposure, risks productivity gains

South Korea ranks 33rd out of 34 OECD member states for the share of jobs highly exposed to generative artificial intelligence, with only 34.2 % of occupations classified as high‑exposure. The lone country below it is Colombia, while Luxembourg and the United Kingdom exceed 60 % exposure. Analysts attribute the low figure to South Korea’s industrial structure, which is dominated by manufacturing (about 27 % of GDP, the second‑highest share among OECD members) and other repetitive‑task jobs that are less amenable to current generative‑AI tools.

A Korea Development Institute estimate suggests AI could replace roughly 256,000 workers each year over the next decade, a number that is below the projected annual decline of 390,000 working‑age persons. However, the same low exposure raises concerns that the country may miss out on the productivity boost AI could deliver, with OECD projections of a 0.25‑0.6 percentage‑point increase in annual aggregate productivity growth. Researchers such as Nam Chang‑woo have called for policies that encourage AI investment to capture these gains while mitigating labor‑market disruptions in the most exposed occupations.