Will AI Replace Your Job? South Korea Launches New Task Force

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The Economic, Social and Labor Council has formed a labor-management committee to respond to the transition to artificial intelligence (AI).

On May 22, the council launched the Committee on Labor-Management Coexistence in the AI Transition and held its first plenary meeting.

The committee is charged with addressing changes across workplaces and the broader labor market brought about by the spread of AI.

It will gather frontline concerns that arise during AI adoption and use, and seek strategies and support systems to manage the digital transition.

Hwang Deok-sun, the former president of the Korea Labor Institute, will chair the committee. The 17-member body includes three labor representatives, three employer representatives, four government officials and six public-interest members, and will operate for one year.

Specifically, the committee will examine the effects and current status of AI adoption and use; approaches for labor-management coexistence in AI deployment and responses to job-structure changes; measures to increase acceptance of AI data collection and use; and the establishment of support systems for the AI transition.

In particular, members plan to assess how AI is being adopted and applied on the shop floor, conducting site visits and convening expert discussions.

At the launch meeting, the committee outlined its purpose and operating principles and shared its upcoming schedule and agenda items.

Following that, Professor Kwon Oh-sung of Yonsei University Law School presented key findings from the council’s AI and Labor study group held last year. Lee Kyung-hee, a senior research fellow at the Korea Labor Institute, gave a presentation and led discussion on the state of AI adoption in industry.

\”We stand at a turning point in which the order of industry, labor and labor-management relations is being reshaped in the AI era,\” Kim Ji-hyung, chair of the council, said. \”The AI transition creates new opportunities, but it also presents challenges, including shifts in job structures and the need for institutional responses.\”

\”Deciding together how to shape and manage new technologies and changes to job structures in the AI era is crucial,\” he added. \”I hope this committee will foster substantive social dialogue—bringing labor, management, government and experts together—to explore ways that technological progress and labor can coexist.\”

Hwang Deok-sun, chair of the AI labor-management coexistence committee, warned that the future of jobs will depend on how society adopts and uses AI. \”We must respond to changes in roles and jobs in ways that allow labor and management to coexist, supported by effective tripartite efforts on education and training,\” he said.

He said the committee will avoid abstract yes-or-no debates and instead start by examining how AI is being introduced and used in workplaces, what changes workers and companies are experiencing, and what institutional safeguards are needed.

The council said it will use the committee’s presentations, debate outcomes and field feedback to develop concrete labor-management response measures and to outline directions for building support systems as industries and the labor market change during the AI transition.