The rapidly changing international order, unlike the past, is racing toward an era of fragmented global competition based on national interests rather than multilateral cooperation, making government operational capability an important topic of discussion. Additionally, in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and artificial intelligence (AI), a new dimension of administrative innovation is needed to support government operational capability. However, to understand the drivers of new administrative innovation, we first need to examine how the ecosystem of the administrative field has changed.
For administration to develop, the so-called three pillars—education in public administration, research in public administration, and the actual level of government administration—must advance together. Looking at the reality, we can see that the situation has developed to quite a high level compared to the past. First, there are globally renowned evaluation organizations that assess the level of education and research in public administration.
For example, let's look at the well-known UK QS World University Rankings by Subject. In the 2025 rankings for "Social Policy and Administration," Harvard and Oxford Universities took first and second place, with the National University of Singapore ranking third. In Korea, Yonsei University, Seoul National University, Korea University, and Sungkyunkwan University all ranked within the top 30 globally, surprising both domestic and international observers.
Regarding the evaluation of actual government administration levels, looking at the 2025 "Good Government Index" country rankings published by Singapore's Chandler Institute—based on government evaluation indices including government leadership and foresight, laws and policies, administrative agencies, and fiscal management—Singapore and Nordic countries are in the lead. Following them are Western European countries such as Germany and Oceania, with Korea ranked 18th, just after the United Kingdom. This is ahead of France, Austria, Japan, and Belgium.
Therefore, looking at education, research, and actual administrative levels in public administration—the three pillars of administrative development—Korea's administrative ecosystem shows advancement compared to the past, and now is the time for industry, academia, and government to cooperate and dream of rapid progress. The high-tech industry has gained international competitiveness, the level of education and research in academia has improved, and government administrative innovation is entering a new phase.
Thus, building an AI government is now worthy of being a task of our times. Timely, the government has enacted the "Framework Act on the Development of Artificial Intelligence and Establishment of Trust (AI Framework Act)"—which can be called the world's first comprehensive AI law—establishing the National AI Strategy Committee and exploring ways to vitalize the AI industry.
German scholar Ulrich Lichtenthaler called the present era the "PUMO World"—Polarized, Unthinkable, Metamorphic, and Overheated—and in such a world, sharp analytical and predictive capabilities based on data are fundamental. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize AI to smoothly provide public services, perform tasks quickly and accurately, while simultaneously ensuring accountability and legality.
However, we must not make the mistake of recklessly launching AI pilot projects by individual ministries or prioritizing easily accessible chatbots first. Therefore, now is the time to accelerate governance and administrative innovation while first building trustworthy government-level AI public goods that combine shared infrastructure, mandatory safeguards, and clear human accountability.