InterviewHyundai Motor workers should upskill to coexist with robots: ILO director

Lee Sang-heon, right, director of the Employment Policy Department at the International Labour Organization, speaks during the Global Labor Market Conference's (GLMC) session on youth entrepreneurship at King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Monday (local time). Courtesy of GLMC

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A senior official from the International Labour Organization (ILO) advised Hyundai Motor workers to acquire new skills that will remain essential even after the introduction of Atlas humanoid robots on the carmaker’s assembly lines.

Speaking to The Korea Times on the sidelines of the Global Labor Market Conference in Saudi Arabia's capital city of Riyadh on Monday (local time), Lee Sang-heon, director of the ILO's Employment Policy Department, described the Hyundai Motor union’s recent efforts to block the use of artificial intelligence (AI) robots as “unrealistic.”

“The union’s protest is a typical bargaining tactic,” he said. “The strategy itself is not surprising, but for workers, finding ways to coexist with robots is a more practical approach.”

Lee, the first and only Korean policy director at the Geneva-headquartered United Nations agency, made the remarks as the union engaged in what some observers and Korean news outlets described as a kind of modern-day "Luddism."

On Thursday, the union warned that “not a single robot” could be deployed at worksites without an agreement between labor and management. The statement followed the company’s unveiling of its humanoid robot at the CES 2026 tech show earlier this month and its plan to deploy the robots on assembly lines as early as 2028.

An Atlas humanoid robot picks up an auto part at Hyundai Motor's exhibition booth at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Jan. 8. Yonhap

Pointing to Hyundai Motor’s sister company Kia, which has not reduced its workforce despite deploying robots to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, Lee urged the union to focus on creating a virtuous cycle through optimal redeployment of redundant staff after full automation.

“The easiest way might be to keep paying workers for doing nothing, but that would eventually eliminate jobs for the next generation,” he said. “Even older workers should learn new skills so they can protect skilled positions in the long run.”

Dismissing concerns that human labor will become obsolete after humanoid deployment, Lee stressed that the company will still need skilled workers to maintain and update the robots.

From that perspective, he added that AI will have a limited impact on the total number of jobs, though it may push some people into different occupations. He predicted that companies will continue relying on humans to combine and manage data when using AI.

During the global conference that gathered policymakers, business leaders and labor market experts from more than 120 countries to discuss the future of work, the ILO director also joined a panel discussion on youth entrepreneurship.

At the session, he urged governments to make efforts to address the risks inherent in youth entrepreneurship, which has emerged as a solution to bridge the gap between formal job creation and population growth.

Citing the low survival rate of startups founded by young people, he stressed the need for governments to help ensure decent work, dignity and security.

“We have to recognize the risks associated with entrepreneurship,” he said. “We shouldn’t actually romanticize entrepreneurship."

He added that governments should build an ecosystem that allows young entrepreneurs to sustain a decent livelihood, rather than focusing solely on financial incentives to increase the number of startups.

He also said the business community should view young entrepreneurs as long-term partners, not just short-term investment targets.