South Korea Ranks 10th in Digital and AI Competitiveness, Up 8 Places from Last Year

Fourth Among Countries with Populations of 20 Million or More
Rankings Improved in All Five Areas

South Korea ranked 10th in an assessment of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) competitiveness published by an international research institute.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 11th that South Korea ranked 10th among 70 countries evaluated in the 2026 World Digital and AI Readiness (WDAIR) assessment published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland. This was an eight-place improvement from last year.

By country, the United States, which ranked fourth last year, came in first, while Canada, last year's top-ranked country, placed fifth. In the Asia·Pacific region, Singapore ranked second, China seventh, and Japan 19th.

Among the 32 countries with populations of 20 million or more, South Korea ranked fourth, behind the United States, Canada, and China.

South Korea improved its ranking from last year in all five areas: governance, technology infrastructure, efficiency, talent development, and value and behavior. Among the 70 countries, it ranked 27th in governance (up from 34th), third in technology infrastructure (up from seventh), and third in efficiency (up from 13th). It ranked 20th in talent development (up from 24th) and 16th in value and behavior (up from 19th).

In governance, South Korea ranked first in the Government Core Systems Index, a new indicator. It also improved its rankings in indicators including public-private cooperation supporting technology development (35th, up from 59th) and legislated AI policies (30th, up from 32nd). In technology infrastructure, it retained its top ranking for gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), and ranked eighth in AI papers.

In efficiency, South Korea ranked eighth in the new AI Adoption Index and 18th in the new Implementation of National AI Strategy indicator. It also improved its ranking in indicators such as corporate agility (20th, up from 46th). In talent development, it ranked eighth in the new AI Readiness Index and 12th in the new AI Education Index, and improved its ranking in the indicator for attracting highly skilled foreign talent (44th, up from 61st).

In value and behavior, South Korea ranked 10th in the new Public Trust in AI indicator and 25th in the new Corporate Understanding of AI Security Risks indicator. It also improved its ranking in areas including flexibility and adaptability to new challenges (26th, up from 33rd).

"The eight-place rise in the digital and AI competitiveness assessment from the previous year reflects, in combination, our country's strong resilience and the government's commitment to AI," said Lee Dogyu, head of the Information and Communications Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT. "We will continue to implement key digital and AI policies, including the three mega-projects and seven SEED projects, without disruption, and continue improving our digital and AI competitiveness."

Starting this year, IMD revised the assessment framework and renamed its existing World Digital Competitiveness Ranking (WDCR) as WDAIR. Country rankings under the new criteria were applied retroactively from 2022.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.