AI now essential in Korea's job market for both recruiters and applicants

SEOUL, November 28 (AJP) - Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming indispensable in South Korea’s job market, with four out of five companies now using AI tools in their hiring processes and a growing majority of job seekers relying on AI to boost their recruitment chances. 

The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Employment Information Service on Tuesday released the second part of their 2025 Corporate Hiring Trends Survey, conducted from Aug. 1 to Sept. 1. The survey covered HR managers at the top 500 companies by revenue and 3,093 young employees across 17 regions, focusing on AI usage in human resources. 

Among the 396 companies that responded, 86.7 percent use AI tools in HR either officially or unofficially. Of the 163 companies using AI formally, 52.8 percent apply it in hiring, followed by training (45.4 percent) and handling HR inquiries (45.4 percent). 

Among the 86 firms using AI specifically for hiring, 69.8 percent rely on AI-based aptitude or competency tests. Nearly half use AI to review application documents (46.5 percent) or during interviews (46.5 percent). 

Looking ahead, 74.5 percent of companies plan to adopt or further expand AI tools in hiring — with most focusing on AI-based tests (67.5 percent), document screening (63.4 percent), and managing the overall recruitment pipeline (55.6 percent). 

By contrast, 25.5 percent have no plans to introduce AI, mainly due to concerns over fairness and objectivity (36.6 percent) or a belief that final hiring decisions should remain human-led (19.8 percent). 

On the applicant side, 42.3 percent of young job seekers have used AI tools — mostly for writing résumés and cover letters (77.2 percent), interview preparation (36.4 percent), and company research (31.0 percent). Of them, 86.6 percent said AI tools were helpful. 

AI use is also spreading among young employees at work: 61.8 percent reported using AI for tasks like research and idea generation (63.6 percent), document creation (58.1 percent), and data analysis (35.4 percent). 

The government plans to introduce ethical guidelines and checklists for AI-based hiring by the end of the year and expand AI-related training for young people through programs such as the Tomorrow Learning Card. 

“As the AI ecosystem evolves rapidly, its use in hiring is diversifying,” said Lim Young-mi, Director of Employment Policy. “The government will support companies in adopting AI for fairer hiring and create more opportunities for young people to build AI-related skills.”

* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.

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