At Hyundai Motor, a major South Korean car manufacturer, 24 workers are at risk of losing their jobs, according to Kim Mi-ok, a representative from the Korean Metalworkers' Union, who spoke to the magazine Jugan Kyunghyang. The union leader attributes this to the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in factories, where companies are turning to cheaper robots to cut costs. In a plant located in Ulsan, in the southeast of South Korea, the production of wheels and tires is set to become fully automated. As a result, many subcontractors have had their contracts canceled, leaving them without work. In Daejeon, a city further west, an automotive parts manufacturing company has stopped replacing workers who leave. Instead, robots are gradually taking over tasks previously done by human employees, according to the daily newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun. The integration of AI, especially physical AI—technology that allows machines to perform tasks typically done by humans—is already widespread. More than 80 percent of large South Korean manufacturing companies have either already adopted AI or plan to, and 47 percent are currently using it in their production processes, according to a survey by the Federation of Korean Enterprises, as reported by Kyunghyang Shinmun. On the ground, workers confirm the shift. Nearly half of them say that AI is either already present in their workplaces or is being introduced. This rapid technological change has raised concerns among employees about the future of their jobs. Many fear that as automation expands, more positions could be eliminated, leading to increased unemployment and economic uncertainty for those in the manufacturing sector.