Seoul concentrates most of its AI programme into a handful of very large rooms — COEX, the Shilla, the DDP — with a policy layer running alongside that decides what next year's programme talks about.This page tracks both, with a judgment on each: which ones repay an executive's day, which are really recruiting or research events, and which you can safely follow from a livestream. The list Metis AI keeps for its own clients.
5 events in the next 90 days · 1 more on the horizon · times local to KST (UTC+9) · last updated 4 August 2026
Korea's flagship applied-AI conference and expo at COEX, pairing enterprise keynotes and agentic-AI case studies with a large exhibition hall of startups and vendors.
Who it’s for: Executives with a Korea mandate. The keynote track is enterprise case studies rather than research, and the exhibition floor is the real reason to go — three days is more than most people need, so pick your day.
ConferencePaidVerified 4 Aug
Organised by DMK Global, in partnership with COEX and KITA
A one-day media-hosted conference gathering executives from global AI firms and Korean industry to discuss AI market trends, policy direction and cross-border cooperation.
Who it’s for: A one-day, media-run conference: good for a fast read on Korean policy direction and market mood, thin on implementation detail.
Seoul city government's flagship global startup festival, themed 'AI Changes Everything' this year, combining tech showcases, investor meetups and keynotes on AI's impact across industries.
Who it’s for: Founders, investors and corporate venture teams. Free and city-run, so signal-to-noise varies — go for the meetings, not the main stage.
A five-day international academic conference on AI agents for scientific research, with parallel oral tracks, poster sessions, a hackathon and an AI art competition, backed by Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT.
Who it’s for: Researchers and R&D leads. Five days in an academic format — corporate attendees should cherry-pick a day rather than commit the week.
ConferencePaidVerified 4 Aug
Organised by Korean Society for Practical AI (AI Friends), with the Korean Science AI Forum
A World Bank-organised policy summit with Korea's finance and science ministries on using AI and digital tools to drive jobs and productivity in developing economies; most sessions are invitation-only with select sessions livestreamed.
Who it’s for: Policy and development-finance professionals. Largely invitation-only, so for most people this is a livestream to watch rather than a trip to book.
SummitPrice TBCVerified 4 Aug
Organised by World Bank Group, with Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance and Ministry of Science and ICT
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On the horizon
Confirmed, but more than 90 days out. Worth diarising now if travel or budget approval is involved.
Seoul's AI calendar is unusually top-heavy. COEX in Gangnam hosts most of the large events — AI Summit Seoul, AI EXPO KOREA, AI4Sci — and the pattern is a big exhibition hall plus a keynote track heavy on enterprise case studies. The Shilla and Lotte World Tower take the executive and media-run conferences, and the DDP carries the city government's startup programming. If you are visiting, almost everything worth attending sits in Gangnam or Jung-gu, which makes a two-event week genuinely practical.
Language is the practical constraint. The flagship international events run bilingually with interpretation, but the secondary programme — most meetups, many policy sessions, a good deal of the exhibition floor — is Korean-first, and interpretation is not guaranteed by the fact that a session is listed in English. Ask before you commit a day to it.
There is also a policy layer here with no real equivalent elsewhere in the region: World Bank convenings, ministry-backed forums, Financial Services Commission programming. Much of it is invitation-only with selected sessions livestreamed, which for most professionals makes it something to follow rather than something to attend. On price, the government and city-run events are free and often the most interesting in the calendar, while the flagship conferences are firmly paid and priced for corporate budgets. The most overrated category is the multi-day academic conference with an industry veneer — that format rewards presenters, not attendees. The most underrated is the exhibition floor at Korea Fintech Week, which carries a free tier and a genuinely strong agentic-AI showing.
Why this list exists
Metis AI advises Hong Kong professionals and their teams on putting AI to work — which tools, which workflows, and which of this calendar is genuinely worth a Tuesday evening. The list is a by-product of that advisory work, kept current because clients keep asking for it.
If the harder question is what to actually do with AI inside your own role, that is a conversation rather than a conference.
What the Seoul calendar is actually like
Seoul's AI calendar is unusually top-heavy. COEX in Gangnam hosts most of the large events — AI Summit Seoul, AI EXPO KOREA, AI4Sci — and the pattern is a big exhibition hall plus a keynote track heavy on enterprise case studies. The Shilla and Lotte World Tower take the executive and media-run conferences, and the DDP carries the city government's startup programming. If you are visiting, almost everything worth attending sits in Gangnam or Jung-gu, which makes a two-event week genuinely practical.
Language is the practical constraint. The flagship international events run bilingually with interpretation, but the secondary programme — most meetups, many policy sessions, a good deal of the exhibition floor — is Korean-first, and interpretation is not guaranteed by the fact that a session is listed in English. Ask before you commit a day to it.
There is also a policy layer here with no real equivalent elsewhere in the region: World Bank convenings, ministry-backed forums, Financial Services Commission programming. Much of it is invitation-only with selected sessions livestreamed, which for most professionals makes it something to follow rather than something to attend. On price, the government and city-run events are free and often the most interesting in the calendar, while the flagship conferences are firmly paid and priced for corporate budgets. The most overrated category is the multi-day academic conference with an industry veneer — that format rewards presenters, not attendees. The most underrated is the exhibition floor at Korea Fintech Week, which carries a free tier and a genuinely strong agentic-AI showing.