The digital transformation of government helps countries respond to complex societal challenges, meet rising public expectations, and harness digital technologies and data for the public good. Korea has been at the forefront of this transformation, embedding digital in its governance and service delivery for decades. This OECD Digital Government Review assesses Korea's progress and future priorities in building an agile, human-centred and trustworthy digital government. It emphasises the role of digital government in enhancing social well-being and supporting sustainable economic growth. The report focuses on four key areas: strengthening governance, investment and skills; improving data governance and sharing; leveraging artificial intelligence for public sector transformation; and delivering more human-centred and proactive public services. The review also provides recommendations to help Korea consolidate its achievements and respond to new opportunities and risks.
Digital Government Review of Korea
Abstract
Executive summary
Korea is a global leader in digital government, demonstrating long-standing commitment to innovation, efficiency, and citizen-centred public services. Decades of strategic investment, institutional reform, and policy foresight have laid a strong foundation for Korea’s digital transformation. This OECD Digital Government Review, developed in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) and international peers, assesses Korea’s achievements and identifies opportunities for continued progress. The review focuses on four pillars – (1) governance, (2) data, (3) artificial intelligence (AI), (4) human-centred services – and Korea’s role on the global stage.
Korea’s digital transformation is driven by strong political leadership, centralised governance, and a co-ordinated institutional model led by MOIS. National strategies, cross-government collaboration, and high-performing digital infrastructure support consistent, long-term progress. Investments in digital government, guided by structured planning, central oversight, and standardised procurement processes ensure that initiatives are aligned with national priorities and deliver value for money. In parallel, Korea is working to build a digitally capable public workforce through targeted training, AI competency development, and data-literacy programmes. While these efforts are well advanced, challenges persist around talent retention, continuity in technical roles, and the need for greater agility and inclusiveness in regulatory and institutional co-ordination.
Korea leads globally in the strategic use of data in the public sector. It ranks first among OECD countries in government data and open-data maturity, due to its strong legal foundations and sustained investment in data policy and infrastructure. Frameworks such as the Act on Data-Based Administration enable secure sharing and re-use of data across institutions, while initiatives like MyData enhance individuals’ control over their personal data. However, practical barriers remain around data discoverability, support for legal compliance with data access and sharing, outdated laws hindering data sharing, and consistent use of data for service improvement and policy monitoring. While recent reforms in data protection may reinforce public confidence in public sector use of personal data, transparency around the use of data and algorithms in public decision-making could be strengthened.
Korea also sets international benchmarks in AI in government. It performs high in the government AI maturity component of the OECD Digital Government Index (DGI), reflecting a well-developed enabling environment, supported by strategic governance, frameworks for trustworthy AI, and digital infrastructure. Various areas of government use AI to improve operational efficiency and service responsiveness. For example, labour-inspection tools, patent-examination assistance, and flood-prediction systems have delivered measurable benefits. Nevertheless, adoption remains limited in important functions such as public procurement and public integrity to help identify fraud and strengthen public-sector accountability. Korea introduced guardrails to address potential risks, including national AI standards for trustworthy AI, the AI Safety Institute, and the Basic AI Act that will come into effect in 2026. Looking ahead, enhanced stakeholder-engagement and transparency mechanisms, such as public registries of government AI use, will be key to maintaining trust and supporting responsible, scaled deployment of AI across the public sector.
Finally, Korea’s approach to the design and delivery of digital public services is increasingly human-centred, integrated, accessible, and proactive. Flagship initiatives such as Digital Platform Government (DPG) and Government24 streamline more than 1,500 government services into centralised, digital platforms, improving accessibility and personalisation across public and private channels. The Electronic Government Act (2001) and national service-design standards drive service consistency and quality. Participatory mechanisms such as the Citizen Participatory Design Group embed public perspectives, though more investment in co-design and usability testing would strengthen user involvement throughout the service lifecycle. Korea promotes transparency and ethical service delivery through informed consent, performance monitoring, and digital rights protections. However, ensuring alignment between central and local government service delivery, and enhancing real-time user feedback mechanisms will be key to achieving inclusive, intuitive, and impactful services for all.
Strengthening governance, investment, and skills for digital government
Safeguard the agility and continuity of Korea’s governance of digital government while ensuring its inclusiveness and responsiveness to evolving national objectives.
Improve the coherence and impact of digital transformation strategies by aligning, simplifying and co-ordinating the development of strategic documents to ensure sustainability and consistency.
Strengthen the legal and regulatory framework to keep pace with evolving societal needs and technological advancements through inclusive stakeholder engagement.
Enhance strategic management of digital government investments, promoting agility by introducing multi-year funding options, funding for innovation teams rather than fixed projects, conditional overspend allowances with strong business cases, and dedicated funds for digital technologies like AI.
Promote the development of digital skills and talent through stability in digital and technical roles by limiting mandatory rotation for these positions, including aligning staff tenure with the lifecycle of key projects, to enhance institutional knowledge, continuity, and project success.
Improving data governance, sharing, and use
Modernise laws and regulations by reviewing those that require physical documents or signatures, and speeding up reforms that enable paperless, automated data access and sharing.
Develop and share practical guidelines to help institutions meet changing data-protection requirements, focusing on lawful dataset combination and risk-based data integration.
Improve data discoverability by encouraging public sector organisations to create, maintain and share internal catalogues that list all their data assets, not just those available as open data.
Encourage public institutions to further embed data use and analysis into service-lifecycle management, including user-research, design iteration, and feedback to improve citizen experience.
Leveraging AI for government transformation
Advance the use of AI in government by promoting systematic and continuous assessment of AI initiatives, using standardised frameworks to measure public value, inclusiveness, and operational performance, to inform investment and scale-up decisions.
Further strengthen enablers for trustworthy AI in government by developing shared service models and funding mechanisms to support access to AI computing capacity (“compute”), data, and cloud infrastructure for local and smaller-scale public institutions, promoting inclusive digital transformation.
Secure guardrails and engagement for trustworthy AI through a mandatory, regularly updated public inventory of AI systems used in the government, to support risk-monitoring and management, public trust, and knowledge-sharing, building on international good practices.
Delivering human-centred and proactive public services
Strengthen the design and delivery of human-centred services by embedding user participation throughout the entire service design lifecycle through implementing structured co-design practices and usability testing to ensure that digital services are intuitive and inclusive to meet the diverse needs of all users.
Expand the provision of proactive and seamless services by introducing flexible budget structures that allow for rapid experimentation and innovation, particularly in adopting new technologies like AI, while ensuring sustainable funding for critical digital infrastructure.
