A unified certification system to verify the reliability and safety of AI products and services in Korea will take effect as early as this December. Considering that private certification schemes have proliferated while corporate participation remains low, incentives such as public procurement benefits and support for assessment costs are also under review.
According to the IT industry on the 28th, the AI Reliability Alliance, an industry-academia-research consortium, launched pilot certification of a new AI safety certification system for six companies starting this month. The plan is to begin full implementation as early as year-end after internal supplementary procedures.
The new system targets high-impact AI used in fields with significant social influence, such as energy, education, and transportation. "With the enforcement of the amended AI Framework Act on the 21st of this month, the responsibilities of developers and users to manage high-impact AI have been stipulated, but there is no unified standard to fulfill them," an Alliance official said. "The aim is to reduce confusion in the industry and clarify the standards."
Another feature is that it is designed to consolidate the assessment items of existing private certifications into a single standard for evaluation. Currently, more than seven schemes are operated separately by their respective supervising organizations in Korea, including the Telecommunications Technology Association's (TTA) AI reliability Certification of AI Trustworthiness (CAT), the Korea Testing Laboratory's International Industrial AI Certification, the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association's AI Master, and the Korea Standards Association's AI Plus (AI+).
The problem is that companies are turning away from them. The majority choose only certifications based on international standards such as ISO and IEC, while domestic schemes suffer from low recognition. Costs ranging from several million won to tens of millions of won, depending on the type of product or service, are also cited as an entry barrier. A review of certification records by operating organization found that they amounted to only two to about 50 cases per year. "Domestic certification is meaningless for companies focused on overseas markets," an official at an AI service company said. "We were not even aware of the system's existence, and given the burden of assessment costs, we felt no need to obtain it."
This is why the Alliance has simultaneously put forward both the creation of the system and measures to promote it. "We are discussing public procurement incentives and certification voucher support with relevant ministries and the Public Procurement Service," the official said. "In the mid- to long term, we are also reviewing ways to expand the scope of certification from products and services to next-generation AI services such as AI agents and physical AI."
