Korea sees brain drain of AI talent amid low wage premium: BOK

SK hynix's high bandwidth memory HBM3E is displayed at the SK AI Summit 2025 exhibition in Seoul, Nov. 3. Yonhap

Korea has recorded a net outflow of talent in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector as the wage premium for AI professionals remains the lowest among major advanced economies, the central bank said Friday.

The country recorded a net outflow of AI talent every year from 2010 through 2024, excluding 2020, and the number of Korean AI professionals working overseas increased steadily to reach about 11,000 last year, according to a report by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The figure accounted for about 16 percent of the country's total AI workforce, about 6 percentage points higher than the average share of workers overseas in other fields, the report showed.

In terms of the overall number of AI professionals, Korea also lagged far behind major nations.

Koreans with skills in big data, cloud computing, deep learning and related fields stood at around 57,000 in 2024, well below that of the United States, which had around 780,000 AI professionals, as well as Britain with 110,000 and France with 70,000.

The report noted that the wage premium earned by domestic AI professionals ranked near the bottom among major developed nations.

AI professionals in Korea earned an average of just 6 percent more than non-AI workers last year, compared with a 25 percent premium in the U.S., 18 percent in Canada, and 15 percent in Britain, France and Australia.

"Our analysis suggests a link between compensation and overseas job mobility in the AI sector," said Oh Sam-il, head of the BOK's employment research team.

"The low wage premium is due partly to Korea's rigid wage structure and underdeveloped performance-based pay system, and such factors put the country at a disadvantage in the global competition for AI talent."