Kim Young-hoon calls for social innovation alongside AI, proposes 'K-Labor Chamber' for platform workers

Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon said Wednesday that the AI era demands not only technological innovation but a fundamental overhaul of social institutions.

With AI spreading rapidly and leaving existing labor markets and social security systems increasingly out of step with reality, Kim said new social frameworks must be built to protect platform workers, freelancers and others outside traditional employment structures.

Speaking at a press briefing at Government Complex Sejong to mark his first anniversary in office, Kim said AI "is transforming the very foundations of the social institutions our predecessors built," and that "we must innovate not just technology but social institutions as well."

"Social institutions are themselves a kind of invention," he said. "After the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of the working class gave rise to social security systems — but those systems have now become relics. In the AI era, we must invent new social institutions if we are to realize the fundamental goal of AI that serves humanity."

Kim pointed to his recently proposed "K-Labor Chamber" — a working title — as a flagship example of such social innovation. He described it as "a self-help organization for non-standard workers and a system for delivering welfare to workers who are difficult to reach through existing trade unions."

He added that the ministry envisions expanding the Workers' Welfare Act to cover a broader category of workers, with the chamber handling welfare card issuance, career recognition, vacation support, microloans and severance pay applications. "The core idea is not a society where everyone fends for themselves, but a space where workers can communicate with one another and connect with the state," he said.

However, Kim said the name could change. "What matters is the spirit of building a new social foundation where non-standard workers can connect with each other and be protected," he added.

Kim also highlighted AI's potential impact on youth employment. "Young people are the first to bear the full brunt of the sweeping changes AI has brought," he said, adding that the ministry is working on "fundamentally different policies" for youth.

He also referenced the "National Responsibility for Youth Career Development" initiative recently proposed by Kim Yong-beom, the presidential office's policy chief.

"The Ministry of Employment and Labor is also working to flesh out the direction the policy chief has laid out," Kim said, pledging to accelerate efforts to develop youth employment policies suited to the AI era.

He said "the role of the state in the AI era is to walk a path no one has walked before," and vowed to build a new labor market order through social and institutional innovation commensurate with technological change.

Meanwhile, the Korea Development Institute said in a report titled "Analysis of AI's Macroeconomic Impact" that the spread of generative AI could, over the next decade, raise the Korean economy's total factor productivity by up to 3.5 percent and boost productivity at AI-adopting firms by an average of 20 percent, but warned that roughly 256,000 jobs per year could be lost, concentrated among mid- to high-skilled occupations such as professional and clerical roles.

The report recommended redesigning job roles and expanding retraining for occupations with high AI exposure, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises' AI adoption through public cloud infrastructure and shared GPU centers, and strengthening the social safety net — including closing gaps in unemployment benefit coverage — to prepare for the growth in non-standard work that AI is expected to bring.