◆
Singapore pursues an open-hub strategy based on a three-tier talent structure—Creators, Practitioners, and Users—and “dual-competency AI talent” combining domain
expertise with AI capabilities. It concentrates research, computing, corporate Centers of
Excellence (CoEs), and national missions within a compact geographic space.
◆
Korea has built a broad supply base through AI graduate schools, software- and AI-focused universities, digital talent programs, and lifelong AI education. It also
possesses strong domain assets in semiconductors, manufacturing, and public services.
In the next phase, however, Korea must move beyond simply adding new educational
programs. It needs to integrate the definition of strategic occupations, the securing of
top-tier talent and mission teams, access to GPUs, data, and test environments, global
brain circulation, field deployment, and performance feedback into a single system.
Korea’s overall position can be characterized as follows. With its strengths in
semiconductors, manufacturing, public digital infrastructure, and policy mobilization, Korea has
the potential to become a G3-class “frontier execution model” in AI talent policy. Yet it
remains an “industry-based execution model” that is weaker than the United States, the
United Kingdom, and Singapore in the scale, inflow, and retention of globally leading talent.
Rather than competing with the United States and China in aggregate scale across every
field, Korea should therefore pursue a high-density talent strategy capable of producing
top-three outcomes in selected areas: the three mega-projects of AI semiconductors, AI data
centers (AIDCs), and physical AI, as well as manufacturing and public-sector AX and AI safety.
In terms of how talent is secured and deployed, Korea currently follows a “national
pipeline model,” in which talent is trained through domestic universities and government
programs and subsequently placed in the domestic economy. To become an AI G3 talent
powerhouse, Korea must transition toward a “global platform model” that adds external
attraction and global circulation to this pipeline. Korea cannot simply replicate either the
fully open U.S. platform model or China’s large-scale mobilization model. Instead, it should
establish a high-density model for talent circulation and deployment in strategic fields,
integrating the development of elite domestic talent, the strategic attraction of external
talent, on-demand talent circulation, and domestic industrial missions. Through this transition,
Korea can strengthen both its capacity to secure and deploy talent and its ability to execute
national strategy, thereby reinforcing its position as an AI talent powerhouse.