South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT held a briefing on March 19 in the K-BIZ Hall at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul, for its AI Integrated Voucher programme aimed at lowering barriers to companies adopting artificial intelligence and supporting innovation.

The AI Integrated Voucher programme provides comprehensive support to small and medium-sized companies and others for AI use, including solution development, data purchases and processing, and cloud services. It has been promoted since 2019 with the aim of expanding AI use across industries.

At the briefing, the ministry introduced the 2026 programme direction, key support details and application procedures. It also held a Q&A session for companies seeking to participate.

This year's programme operates across four pillars: AI vouchers, data vouchers, cloud vouchers and AX one-stop vouchers.

The AI voucher programme supports the development and application of AI solutions so small merchants, small and medium-sized companies, mid-sized firms and medical institutions can adopt AI technology to boost the competitiveness of products and services. It will select a total of 130 tasks across four areas - general, AI semiconductors, small merchants and global - and provide a total of 25.2 billion won in support. This year, in particular, it reorganised the support structure around strategic areas directly linked to national competitiveness to increase policy effectiveness.

The data voucher programme supports prospective founders, startups and small and medium-sized companies in purchases, processing and use of data to advance data-based AI services. It will provide 7.2 billion won for a total of 120 tasks and newly created a category for expanded data disclosure and use.

The cloud voucher programme supports service fees so small and medium-sized companies can use cloud-based AI service operating environments. It will select a total of 60 tasks and provide 4.1 billion won, and it will also offer advanced consulting by selecting firms with high potential for creating results.

The AX one-stop voucher programme provides integrated support in voucher form for AI, cloud and data to promote artificial intelligence transformation, or AX, at small and medium-sized companies and mid-sized firms. It will select 20 tasks and provide about 1.3 billion won per task, for total support worth 26.0 billion won.

Kim Kyung-man (김경만), director general for AI policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, "We will continue to provide support so companies can more easily adopt and use AI technology through the AI Integrated Voucher programme." He added, "By providing integrated support for the elements needed to use AI, we will continue to expand AX across industries and strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic AI ecosystem."

Details such as the programme call and application procedures can be found on the websites of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and the Korea Data Agency (K-DATA).