Why Do So Many South Koreans Love AI? Inside the World's Most AI-Optimistic Country (2026)

According to Pew Research Center surveys, South Korea is the most AI-optimistic country in the world: just 16% of South Koreans say they are more concerned than excited about artificial intelligence — the lowest of any of the 25 nations Pew surveyed, and a fraction of the 50% of Americans who feel more worried than thrilled. A widely shared MIT Technology Review feature published on June 15, 2026 set out to explain why, opening with a now-iconic image: a traveler arriving in Seoul after a 12-hour flight, greeted not by a human officer but by a machine that scans their face and passport at an unmanned immigration gate. This article unpacks the real reasons behind South Korea's unusual embrace of AI — government strategy, an economy built on the chips AI runs on, AI quietly embedded in everyday routines, and a culture primed for fast technology adoption — while being honest about the anxieties underneath. The figures and examples here are drawn from Pew, the Stanford AI Index, MIT Technology Review and Korean policy reporting, and are attributed throughout rather than independently verified.

Just how AI-optimistic is South Korea?

The single most striking data point comes from Pew Research Center's 2025 global survey of attitudes toward AI. Asked whether they were more excited or more concerned about the growing use of AI in daily life, only 16% of South Koreans landed on the "more concerned" side — the lowest share among all 25 countries surveyed. For comparison, Pew found that 50% of Americans were more worried than excited, and other relatively optimistic nations still trailed South Korea: India at 19%, Israel at 21%, Nigeria at 24%, Turkey at 26%, Japan at 28% and Germany at 29%. In other words, South Koreans are not just a little more upbeat about AI than the global average — they are statistically the most enthusiastic population Pew measured.

That enthusiasm shows up in behavior, not just opinion polls. According to surveys cited by MIT Technology Review, including ones run by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a majority of Koreans report using AI tools on a daily basis for personal help or work tasks. The picture that emerges is of a country where AI has moved past the early-adopter phase and become a routine part of how ordinary people get things done. The interesting question is not whether South Koreans use AI a lot — they clearly do — but why this particular country embraced it so quickly and so warmly.

Reason one: the government engineered the enthusiasm

The most important driver, according to MIT Technology Review's reporting, is deliberate national policy. South Korea has treated AI leadership as a top-down strategic priority in a way few democracies have. In December 2024 the National Assembly passed the AI Basic Act — formally a framework law to advance the nation's AI competitiveness — which came into force in January 2026, making South Korea one of the first countries with comprehensive AI legislation on the books. Crucially, as reporting on the law emphasizes, the act leans toward enabling development rather than restraining it, even as it adds obligations like risk assessment and a local representative for "high-impact" and generative AI systems.

President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in 2025, has made AI a centerpiece of his economic agenda, pledging to vault South Korea into the ranks of the world's "top three AI powers" alongside the United States and China. To back that ambition, his administration launched a Presidential Council on National AI Strategy (the AI Basic Act also establishes a presidentially chaired National AI Strategy Committee) and a sovereign AI foundation model project that funds Korean companies to build homegrown models, alongside large investments in computing power. The state has paired this with industrial support — generous tax credits and low-interest financing for chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix. When a government consistently frames AI as a national mission and a "game changer," that messaging filters down into public sentiment.

The values baked into the policy reflect the public mood, too. The Stanford AI Index 2026, as cited by MIT Technology Review, reports that 70% of South Koreans say advancing science and medicine through AI is a bigger priority than protecting existing industries through regulation. That is a notably pro-innovation tilt, and it helps explain why a development-first law could pass without the kind of public backlash seen elsewhere.

Reason two: South Korea makes the hardware AI runs on

There is a powerful economic logic underneath the optimism. South Korea is not merely a consumer of AI — it is one of the foundational suppliers of the global AI build-out. Samsung and SK Hynix together supply most of the world's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, the specialized memory that sits alongside the GPUs training today's largest AI models. When the entire planet is racing to build data centers, the companies making a critical, hard-to-substitute component are in an enviable position — and that prosperity is felt across an export-driven economy.

The country also punches above its weight in AI development itself. Per the Stanford AI Index 2026 as reported by MIT Technology Review, South Korea ranks third globally for the number of notable AI models produced. For a nation of roughly 52 million people, being a top-three producer of significant models — and the dominant supplier of the memory chips that make AI training possible — creates a national narrative in which AI is a source of strength and pride rather than a foreign threat. It is much easier to be excited about a technology when your own factories and labs are central to building it.

Reason three: AI is already woven into daily life

Optimism is also self-reinforcing when AI is visible and useful in everyday routines. MIT Technology Review's reporting catalogs a string of examples that make AI feel like ordinary infrastructure in South Korea rather than a distant abstraction. Travelers pass through unmanned immigration checkpoints that scan faces and passports. Facial-recognition payments are reportedly gaining ground. Delivery robots ferry packages, including on subway platforms. The article describes proposed "AI bus stops" in the affluent Gangnam district equipped with multilingual kiosks. Schools have introduced AI textbooks, and welfare centers have deployed eldercare robots to support older residents.

Companies reinforce this everyday presence. Naver — often described as South Korea's homegrown answer to Google — has invested heavily in robotics and autonomous-driving research, embedding AI into services millions of Koreans already use. When AI is something you interact with at the airport, the convenience store and the bus stop, it stops feeling like science fiction and starts feeling like a normal, helpful part of modern life. That familiarity dampens fear and feeds the optimism Pew measured.

Reason four: a culture primed for fast adoption

South Korea has a long history as an early and aggressive adopter of new technology, from world-leading broadband and smartphone penetration to a vibrant gaming and online culture. That track record matters: a society that has repeatedly seen new technology improve daily life tends to extend the benefit of the doubt to the next wave. MIT Technology Review's feature captures this in human detail — for instance, describing a 29-year-old insurance agent who casually uses ChatGPT for everything from stock tips to fortune-telling. A Korea Gallup survey cited in the reporting found that 46% of South Koreans in their twenties have used chatbots for the traditional practice of fortune-reading, a vivid sign of how naturally AI has slotted into existing cultural habits rather than displacing them.

This blend of high-tech and tradition is part of what makes the South Korean case so distinctive. AI is not positioned as a rupture with the past; it is folded into familiar practices and daily conveniences. When a new tool feels like an upgrade to things people already do — paying, traveling, seeking guidance — adoption tends to be enthusiastic rather than anxious.

The anxieties underneath the optimism

It would be a mistake to read all of this as uncomplicated techno-utopia. The same reporting that documents South Korea's enthusiasm also surfaces real and significant unease. According to MIT Technology Review, 64% of South Koreans fear that AI will displace jobs — a high figure that sits in tension with the country's overall optimism. The 29-year-old who uses ChatGPT daily reportedly also worries about losing her own livelihood to the technology, capturing the paradox neatly. In 2025, Hyundai's union protested the deployment of Atlas robots, a reminder that automation anxiety is concrete in industries where robots can replace people.

Scholars urge caution about the upside-only framing. Professor Chihyung Jeon, quoted in the coverage, observes that the government and public "has consistently and relentlessly been told... about AI's potential to create a better future," and warns that this single-minded enthusiasm can create "blind spots" around the social, political and ethical dimensions of the technology. In other words, being the world's most AI-optimistic country has costs as well as benefits: a population eager to deploy AI may be slower to scrutinize its risks, from surveillance and privacy questions raised by ubiquitous facial recognition to the labor disruptions that worry so many Koreans even as they embrace the tools. The honest reading is that South Korea is genuinely and unusually enthusiastic about AI — and that this enthusiasm coexists with deep, unresolved anxiety.

The facts as reported

Here is a compact summary of the core claims in this story and where they come from. Figures are as reported by the cited sources and have not been independently verified by comparee.ai:

The bottom line

South Korea's love affair with AI is not an accident of national temperament — it is the product of several forces pulling in the same direction. The government has made AI leadership an explicit national mission, complete with a framework law, a presidential strategy council and industrial support for the chipmakers at the heart of the global AI economy. That economy gives Koreans a direct stake in AI's success, since Samsung and SK Hynix supply the memory the world's models run on. AI is already embedded in daily life, from immigration gates to bus stops, and a culture of rapid technology adoption has welcomed it as the next upgrade rather than a threat. Together, these factors help explain why only 16% of South Koreans are more worried than excited — the most optimistic reading Pew found anywhere.

But the more complete picture is one of optimism shadowed by anxiety. A majority fear for their jobs, unions resist factory robots, and thoughtful observers warn that relentless enthusiasm can blind a society to AI's harder questions about ethics, privacy and power. South Korea is, in effect, running one of the world's most ambitious live experiments in what happens when a country goes all in on AI. The rest of the world has good reason to watch closely — both for what works and for the costs that even the most AI-optimistic nation has not yet resolved.

Disclaimer: based on reporting by MIT Technology Review and survey data from Pew Research Center and the Stanford AI Index, with policy details from IAPP and Korean media, all linked below. Figures, quotes and examples are as reported and have not been independently verified by comparee.ai.