South Korea emerged as the fastest-growing country in artificial intelligence adoption in the second half of 2025, signaling a major shift in the global AI race.
The AI Economy Institute, a Microsoft-affiliated think tank, released “AI Diffusion Report: A Widening Digital Divide,” analyzing global AI adoption trends in the latter half of last year.
According to the report, South Korea posted the highest growth rate among all countries, with AI adoption rising 4.8 percentage points, the largest increase globally. This jump lifted Korea seven places to No. 18 overall, with 30.7 percent of the working-age population now using AI. Korea’s cumulative adoption growth since October 2024 has exceeded 80 percent, far above the global average of 35 percent.
By contrast, the United Arab Emirates leads overall adoption, with 64 percent of its working-age population using AI.
The institute attributed Korea’s rapid rise to strong policy support, improved AI model performance and broad cultural acceptance.
don@heraldcorp.com
