EY Korea: "Korean Consumers Among World's Top AI Users"

Lack of Experience with Autonomous AI

Korean consumers have been found to be the most active users of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world.

On May 6, EY Korea announced the results of its "2026 EY AI Perception and Utilization Level Survey," which included these findings. The survey, conducted across 23 countries with around 18,000 respondents, aimed to understand global consumers' AI usage behaviors, perceptions, and the level of acceptance for autonomous AI. In Korea, 1,000 people participated in the survey. Based on the level of AI utilization, the 23 countries were categorized into leading, transitional, and emerging markets. Korea was classified as a leading market, along with eight other nations including India, China, and Brazil.

86% of Korean consumers reported having used AI within the past six months, which is higher than the average of 84% across all surveyed countries. However, only 16% said they had experience using autonomous AI, which is lower than the average of 24% in other leading markets.

Koreans showed higher-than-average response rates in areas such as personalized content recommendations (41%), comparing products and brands while shopping online (37%), and planning and organizing travel itineraries (34%). In contrast, only 19% reported having used AI to describe symptoms and receive a diagnosis, which is lower than the global average of 26%. The proportion of respondents who had received AI-based financial product recommendations was 26%, exceeding the global average of 21%, but in areas such as household budget management (10%) and delegating financial management tasks, such as conducting banking transactions without human intervention (8%), Korea fell short of the global averages (18% and 11%, respectively).

An official from EY Korea explained, "Korean consumers tended to be more cautious in areas involving sensitive personal information or where questions of responsibility for judgment outcomes arise, such as healthcare and finance."

Kim Suyeon, Head of the EY AI Center, emphasized, "Korean consumers expect qualitative improvements in products and services through AI. For companies, it is crucial not to settle for simple automation or adding functions when introducing AI, but to provide personalized recommendations and content curation that precisely reflect customer usage patterns. This is the key to genuinely improving customer experience and driving conversion, and an easily understandable data structure for AI will play a central role."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.