TLDR: South Korean smartphone users collectively spent a record 900 million minutes on generative AI services in December, an eightfold increase from the previous year. This surge highlights the nation’s rapid adoption of AI tools, with ChatGPT leading in user numbers.
SEOUL – South Korean smartphone users have demonstrated an unprecedented level of engagement with generative artificial intelligence (AI) services, logging a combined 900 million minutes of usage in December. This remarkable figure represents an eightfold increase compared to the 110 million minutes recorded in the same period last year, according to data compiled by mobile market research firm WiseappㆍRetailㆍGoods.
The surge underscores South Korea’s rapid embrace of AI technology and its growing integration into daily life. The data reveals that OpenAI’s ChatGPT remained the dominant service, attracting 6.82 million users in December. Following closely were SK Telecom’s domestic AI assistant ‘A.’ with 2.45 million users, and WRTN with 2.32 million users. Other notable services contributing to the record usage included Perplexity (590,000 users), Microsoft Copilot (310,000 users), and Claude (120,000 users).
This significant increase in usage time reflects a broader trend of AI adoption across the country. Recent surveys indicate that nearly one in four Koreans have utilized generative AI tools, a figure that has almost doubled in the past year. The applications of generative AI have also diversified, moving beyond predominantly text-based uses. While text generation still accounts for the majority (57.2 percent), voice or music generation (21.4 percent) and image generation (11.8 percent) are seeing increased adoption.
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Users are primarily leveraging generative AI for efficiency in information retrieval (87.9 percent), assistance with daily tasks (70 percent), and as conversational partners (69.5 percent). Despite the rapid growth, challenges remain, with a significant portion of non-users citing a perceived lack of technical knowledge (65.2 percent), privacy concerns (58.9 percent), and the complexity of the tools (57.3 percent) as barriers to adoption.
