Seoul declared its vision to become a "physical artificial intelligence (AI) leading city." The strategy is to open the entire city as a stage for technology demonstrations and turn it into a place where AI actually works in industry and daily life.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on the 30th presented the physical AI leading city vision and execution strategy at the "AI Seoul 2026" conference held at the COEX Grand Ballroom.
Physical AI is technology that directly interacts in the real world and judges and acts on its own. It is a step more evolved than merely processing existing data. It drew attention as a core keyword at "CES 2026," the world's largest IT and home appliance show, this year.
The physical AI execution strategy presented by the mayor that day centers on three key pillars: infrastructure, the industrial ecosystem, and citizens' daily lives.
First, the city will build a Seoul-style physical AI belt. Yangjae will be developed into an AI technology hub to form a cluster, and robot demonstration infrastructure will proceed in Suseo. The plan is to intensively grow two industrial bases that will serve as the brain and body of the physical AI industry, and consolidation of these areas will support, at the city level, the demonstration and spread of AI-powered robotics.
The Yangjae area will be created as the Seoul AI Tech City. This large-scale project will actively use available sites, including the Seoul AI Hub, the Seoul Grain Wholesale Market, and the Gangnam Data Center, with groundbreaking targeted for 2028. The Yangjae AI Hub currently houses more than 430 startups, a world-class AI graduate school, and a national AI research base.
The area around Suseo Station will be fostered as a "robot cluster" that will serve as the body of physical AI. By 2030, it will be built in phases into a space that spans robot R&D, demonstrations, corporate concentration, and citizen experiences, nurturing it into a physical AI–based robotics hub.
Starting with the "Robot Plus Test Field," which opened in 2024, the city plans to complete the "Seoul Robot Tech Center," an anchor facility that provides one-stop support from technology development to demonstration to startup creation and serves as core infrastructure, by 2030.
The city also plans to use all of downtown Seoul as a "physical AI test bed." Centered on a test bed demonstration center to be created in the second half of this year, it will turn downtown Seoul, including public facilities and parks, into a permanently open demonstration stage to invigorate the industrial ecosystem.
By 2030, the city will inject a total of 100 billion won in a concentrated push to provide one-stop support from on-site demonstrations to market development, establishing a support system where demonstrations directly translate into sales and growth.
This will be realized in the "Yongsan International Business District." The core is to apply physical AI technology to city operations, safety, transportation, logistics, and energy, building it as a "standard model of an intelligent city."
The city will proactively build urban infrastructure such as an integrated operations center, communications networks, and sensors to collect city information in real time across sectors. It will link a digital twin (3D city information) with various sensors to forecast traffic congestion, energy peaks, and disaster situations, optimizing city operations.
The plan is to apply physical AI not only to advanced transportation services such as Autonomous Driving, traffic control, and robot parking, but also to infrastructure construction and overall city operations, including the nation's first underground logistics delivery system and city-level energy management.
In addition, the city will expand the introduction of physical AI to areas closely tied to citizens' lives, such as transportation, care, and safety, so people can feel innovation and change in their daily routines. The goal is to realize a city where technology becomes welfare.
In Oct. this year, the nation's first and the world's third "Level 4 unmanned robotaxi" will begin operating in the city center. The early-morning companion autonomous bus service, currently on one route from Dobong to Yeongdeungpo (A160), will expand to four routes (five vehicles) including Geumcheon to Sejong-ro, Sanggye to Express Bus Terminal, and Eunpyeong to Yangjae. A driverless autonomous shuttle bus (two vehicles) on Cheonggyecheon and autonomous village buses (six vehicles) will also run, bringing the total number of autonomous buses operating across Seoul this year to 18.
Physical AI will also fill gaps in care services. The city will expand the distribution of robots that assist rehabilitation and walking, as well as wearable robots that support muscle strength. It will also introduce AI fire patrol robots and safety inspection drones to expand safety infrastructure based on physical AI.
In addition, by 2030, the city plans to invest 120 billion won to make the urban infrastructure management system, including firefighting and disaster response, more intelligent.
Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, "Technology must ultimately serve people, and the 'physical AI leading city' that Seoul envisions is a city that creates the warmest change with the coldest technology," adding, "Seoul is ready to embark on a great journey to become the global center and standard for physical AI."