The National Information Society Agency (NIA)'s major project budget for this year has been reorganized to center on artificial intelligence (AI). While the budget for major projects with "AI" or "artificial intelligence" in their titles more than quadrupled from last year, the budgets for digital platform government, nurturing the cloud industry, and public digital education fell by nearly 70%.
Analysts say this suggests the NIA's public digital policy focus is shifting from building platform- and cloud-based foundations and strengthening the public's digital capabilities to expanding AI infrastructure and public AI services. However, as both the foundational digital government projects and digital competency training for the public are reduced at the same time, some note that the government should review policy continuity and the digital divide.
On the 8th, ChosunBiz analyzed the NIA's 2026 major project budget data and found that the budget for major projects with "AI" or "artificial intelligence" in their titles was 164.448 billion won, up 314% from the previous year (39.68 billion won). That is a 4.14-fold increase in one year. This is a simple total based on project titles, and the actual size of the budget directly related to AI may vary depending on the details of each project.
By contrast, the combined amount for the top three digital platform government projects, cloud computing industry promotion, and digital competency training fell to 26.948 billion won this year, down 68% from the previous year (84.726 billion won).
◇ Major budgets for digital government, cloud, and education cut across the board
Digital platform government was a flagship digital policy pursued by the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The Presidential Committee of Digital Platform Government was officially launched in Sept. 2022. At the time, the government said it would create an environment for data openness and utilization and use advanced technologies to innovate how the government works.
But the NIA's 2026 major project budget shows that major projects related to the digital platform government were drastically reduced. The budget for the "digital platform government lead projects the public can feel" fell 87% from 10.497 billion won last year to 1.375 billion won this year.
The budget for "providing a test bed for developing digital platform government innovative services" was effectively slashed from 18.638 billion won to 87 million won. The budget for "building a national data service API foundation for the digital platform government" also fell 57% from 10.44 billion won to 4.481 billion won. The combined budget for these three projects fell 85% from 39.575 billion won last year to 5.943 billion won this year.
The budget to nurture the cloud industry also decreased. The NIA's "cloud computing industry promotion" budget fell from 30.263 billion won in 2023 to 28.822 billion won in 2024, 14.249 billion won in 2025, and down to 4.473 billion won this year. That is about a 69% drop from last year and about an 85% drop from 2023.
The budget for public digital education was also reduced. The budget for "digital competency training" fell 46.5% from 30.902 billion won last year to 16.532 billion won this year. This project is a digital inclusion effort that has supported older adults, people with disabilities, farmers and fishers, and multicultural families with smartphone use, kiosk use, mobile finance, and e-government services. The NIA said the decrease was due to local governments taking on the budget share for "learning center training" targeting digitally vulnerable groups starting this year.
◇ Budgets for public AI and computing infrastructure are greatly expanded
In contrast, major AI-related projects were newly allocated or expanded. The NIA's major projects this year newly include 20.6808 billion won for the "public sector AI service support project," 15 billion won for "strengthening the foundation for utilizing AI computing resources," and 12.5 billion won for "creating a development environment for AI utilization services for all citizens."
In addition, 10 billion won for the "AI agent leading nation project," 10 billion won for "converting to AI CCTVs based on domestically made NPUs," 8.3 billion won for the "high-performance AI network foundation project," and 7.5 billion won for the "AI application product rapid commercialization support project" were also newly allocated.
A simple total of major projects with AI or artificial intelligence in their titles shows the related budget increased from 39.68 billion won last year to 164.448 billion won this year. The increase amounts to 124.768 billion won. However, this is a simple total based on project titles, and the scope of the budget directly related to AI may vary depending on project details.
Industry observers interpret the budget overhaul as a shift in the government's digital policy priorities toward AI infrastructure and the application of public AI services. As the major budgets for digital platform government, cloud, and public digital education all declined together, some argue that balanced budget management is needed to ensure that existing digital foundation projects and digital inclusion policies are not weakened during the AI transition.
An NIA official said, "The budget was arranged in line with the government's policy agenda," adding, "While the budget names or items have changed (to AI, etc.), we are also working to maintain the policies we have pursued."