South Korea will spend 5 trillion won (about $3.5 billion) bringing AI and robots to its smallest factories

South Korea's manufacturing muscle was built by small and mid-sized factories — and they are the firms least able to afford the AI transition. The government in Seoul has set out a plan to spend more than 5 trillion won (about $3.5 billion) by 2030 helping 30,000 smaller manufacturers digitise and 6,000 adopt AI and robots on the factory floor. Today's numbers show the gap the plan targets: only about 30 percent of smaller manufacturers have gone digital and barely 1 percent use AI; the goals are 50 percent and 10 percent. Spending begins in earnest in the 2027 budget, with more than 1 trillion won (about $700 million) already proposed.

SDG 8 · Decent work and economic growth — Mechanism: policy reform