Healthcare Leaders Clash Over AI's Impact on Doctor Workforce
Experts disagreed sharply at a Seoul healthcare forum about whether artificial intelligence will shrink the medical workforce, with one hospital president arguing that Korea's payment system-not technology-will determine AI's real-world effect.
The debate unfolded Thursday at the Korea Healthcare Congress 2026, where Dr. Kim Han-su, president of Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, said AI won't reduce the number of doctors in Korea. He attributed this to the country's fee-for-service reimbursement model, which doesn't reward efficiency gains the way value-based systems do.
"Korea's healthcare runs on a fee-for-service system," Kim said. "In the U.S., under value-based healthcare, efficient charting and billing matter, but not in Korea. I doubt AI will reduce the workforce here."
Professor Kim Hyun-cheol of Yonsei University's Department of Preventive Medicine offered a different angle. He predicted that AI for Healthcare would produce slower, more modest effects than in other industries. Rather than replacing doctors, he said AI should address structural problems in Korean medicine-particularly the rushed "three-minute consultation" that dominates the system.
"AI can cut doctors' repetitive tasks and charting, allowing more time for patient care and better communication," Professor Kim said. If hospitals redirect the time savings toward improving care quality instead of cutting costs, he added, the technology could mark a turning point.
Yoon Eul-sik, vice president of the Korean Hospital Association and Korea University Medicine, took the opposite position. He predicted that full AI integration would shrink the medical workforce by roughly one-third through automation and workforce restructuring.
The disagreement reflects a broader tension in healthcare: whether AI Agents & Automation will eliminate jobs or free staff to focus on higher-value work. The answer, the forum suggested, depends less on the technology itself than on how hospitals choose to deploy it and how policy shapes those choices.
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