Jang Young-jae, engineering professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, speaks during a discussion held at the office of the presidential Economic, Social and Labor Council in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Economic, Social and Labor Council

A Korean car parts maker that supplies electric vehicle components to companies such as Tesla had hired 12 employees for its factory. However, after adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technology to improve production efficiency in areas such as inspections, the firm was able to boost productivity by 50 percent, recently reducing its workforce to six. Buoyed by the sales increase, it is now planning to build a similar plant.

As technology develops and more companies adopt it, such a trend is only expected to accelerate. For many workers in manufacturing industries, AI is emerging as a new threat to their job stability.

Their concern about the great AI replacement — that many laborers will be replaced by technology and their jobs will disappear — is a legitimate one, experts said at a discussion on Friday. Yet, they highlighted that if Korea proves its competitiveness in the international AI race, there will be many opportunities created in new, AI-driven fields.

At the event organized by the presidential Economic, Social and Labor Council, tech experts said job losses in manufacturing sectors would be inevitable in the short term. However, the country, a manufacturing powerhouse, should not be defensive; rather, they argued that it should be more aggressive in developing AI and adopting the technology. Many of the jobs that are under threat in the AI era will be gone eventually, and the only way to offset the damage is to take full advantage of AI-given opportunities, they noted.

"Korea's competitiveness is lagging behind in the AI race, and the gap is widening. But I think it still has an opportunity to lead in areas like physical AI, thanks to its abundant know-how and data of manufacturing in various sectors," Jang Young-jae, a scholar at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, said. "One of the promising new industries could be a business of building AI-adopted plants here and overseas. This could create so many jobs and opportunities for Korea."

For example, the emerging software-defined factory model could present a valuable alternative to the hardware-defined manufacturing one that has been prevalent for decades. A software-driven approach can control and optimize manufacturing processes in real time.

This means factory operators in Korea don't have to be present in countries where assembly lines are located, as they can control the whole process from miles away, said the scholar, who has been involved in developing related technologies. Global demand for such factories is expected to increase, he said.

At the event, participants from the academic, industry and public sectors discussed what AI means for the future of Korea's economy and workers. Some of the ideas shared will be reviewed by policymakers as they try to formulate government strategies for the AI era and workers who would be affected by new technology, officials said.

According to a report released by the Bank of Korea last month, 51 percent of employees in Korea work in positions vulnerable to being replaced by AI.