South Korea will use five working groups to shape economic policy for 2027, responding to concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) could intensify social and economic gaps, The Korea Herald reported Wednesday.
Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il introduced the proposal at a meeting with ministers handling economic affairs, according to the report. The task force under his leadership is expected to set policy priorities through teams focused on labor markets, industries, regions, generations and social classes. Together, the assignments place labor, industry, geography, generations and social class inside a single policy effort.
The stated reason for bringing those subjects together is concern over how AI may affect existing disparities. Government officials cautioned that AI-led economic change could make those gaps more severe and accelerate them, potentially producing what they called a “K-shaped divide,” the report said. They also voiced concern that people at the bottom are not getting an equal share of growth’s benefits and that upward mobility remains limited. Those remarks connect the growth plan to both technology’s effects and the distribution of its gains.
Vice ministers responsible for each of the five areas are to lead their respective teams. State-run research institutes will work with the groups as they develop policy objectives, according to the report. The teams will send their goals to Lee’s task force, which is expected to draw policy priorities from the work across all five areas. Those priorities are intended to inform the national growth plan.
The groups are scheduled to begin work Thursday, with their detailed goals due to the task force by early December. Their agenda is intended to feed into South Korea’s economic growth plan for 2027, the report said. The early-December deadline is the next stated milestone for the effort.
