South Korea's digital and AI competitiveness ranked 10th worldwide. That is up eight places from last year. Its ranking rose in all five evaluation categories, including third in both technology infrastructure and efficiency.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Wednesday that South Korea ranked 10th out of 70 countries in the 2026 World Digital and AI Competitiveness (WDAIR) assessment released by Switzerland's International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

IMD revamped its existing World Digital Competitiveness (WDCR) assessment into the World Digital and AI Competitiveness starting this year and applied a new evaluation framework. The new system comprises five categories, 15 sectors and 88 sub-indicators. It also retroactively applied the new standards to past rankings back to 2022.

South Korea rose eight places from 18th last year. Among 32 countries with populations of more than 20 million, it ranked fourth after the United States, Canada and China. It placed third among 15 Asia-Pacific countries.

By country, the United States rose to first from fourth last year. Singapore and the Netherlands ranked second and third, respectively. Denmark and Canada followed. China climbed to seventh from 14th last year, and Japan ranked 19th.

South Korea improved its ranking in all five evaluation categories. Governance rose to 27th from 34th last year, technology infrastructure to third from seventh, and efficiency to third from 13th. Human capital development improved to 20th from 24th, and values and attitudes to 16th from 19th.

Efficiency posted the biggest jump. The indicator for corporate agility rose to 20th from 46th. In the newly introduced AI adoption index, South Korea ranked eighth, and it placed 18th in the implementation of national AI strategy. It ranked first in the government online services index.

In technology infrastructure, total research and development spending as a share of gross domestic product held the top spot. It ranked eighth in AI papers, and the ease of securing venture capital rose to 35th from 46th last year.

In governance, the government core systems index ranked first. Public-private cooperation supporting technology development rose to 35th from 59th, and legislated AI policy to 30th from 32nd. In human capital development, the AI readiness index ranked eighth and the AI education index 12th. The indicator for attracting highly skilled overseas talent rose to 44th from 61st.

In values and attitudes, citizens' trust in AI ranked 10th, and companies' understanding of AI security risks ranked 25th. Flexibility and adaptability to new challenges improved to 26th from 33rd.

Some sub-indicators showed weaker competitiveness or stayed at low rankings. The share of 5G subscriptions in the mobile market fell to 23rd from 11th, and telecommunications investment as a share of GDP dropped to 50th from 30th. The ability to secure digital technology talent stayed at 59th, unchanged from last year. Corporate cybersecurity response slipped to 48th from 40th.

Lee Do-gyu (이도규), director general for telecommunications policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said the rise in the assessment reflected the government's overall commitment to AI. He said the ministry would continue to push ahead without disruption with key digital and AI policies, including three mega projects and seven SEED projects.