Korea to put KRW 5tn into SME factory AI and robots by 2030, targeting 6,000 adopters

South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups presented a strategy to spread physical AI in small manufacturers at the 16th national policy coordination meeting chaired by the prime minister on Oct 29, committing more than KRW 5 trillion of state resources to smart manufacturing through 2030, Chosun Biz, Yonhap and Money Today reported; the ministry's own release was not yet posted online when this was published.

The plan links digital transformation, AI and robotics in what the ministry calls a "3X" approach, aims to bring 30,000 SMEs through digital transformation and 6,000 into AI use by 2030, and sets targets of a 50% digital-transition rate and a 10% AI-adoption rate, which Yonhap put at about 1% today.

It also plans 500 designated smart-manufacturing supplier companies, an upgrade of the KAMP manufacturing-AI platform into "Manufacturing AI 24", and acceptance of factory data as an in-kind contribution in government programmes.

MEKAWIRE context: the plan lands on the same day a KIET report, as carried by Yonhap, placed Korea first in robot density but last of six countries in robot-industry competitiveness, and it sits alongside the eight-ministry public robot rollout that plans about 1,700 units in 2027.