1.

Background and Purpose of the AI Service Market Survey

With the rapid advancement of AI technology, the incorporation of AI into everyday products and services—such as smartphones, automobiles, web browsers, and social media—is becoming commonplace. Integrating AI can promote innovation and competition, and enhance consumer welfare.

On the other hand, concerns continue to be raised about the potential restrictions on competition, such as increased market concentration, and consumer harm, such as false or exaggerated advertising using AI. Major competition authorities worldwide, including the UK CMA, France’s FCA, and Australia’s ACCC, are increasingly focusing research and analysis on the AI services segment within the overall AI value chain.

Against this backdrop, the KFTC announced its plans to conduct this survey to clearly understand the structure and competitive conditions of the domestic AI service market — which includes large domestic and foreign businesses and various start-ups — and to proactively analyze potential competition and consumer issues.
 

2.

Key Details of the Survey and Phased Plan

The KFTC solicited opinion from the industry and academia before launching the survey and plans to conduct the survey in two phases as follows.
 

(1)

Phase 1: Written survey targeting companies
 

• Survey targets: businesses participating in the domestic AI service market (46 companies in total)

• Key survey items:

(2)

Phase 2: Written survey targeting consumers (scheduled to begin in July 2026)
 

• Survey targets: general consumers who use AI services

• Key survey items:

3.

Future Policy Tasks and Implications

The KFTC plans to analyze the survey results and, through continued engagement with participants in the Ai service market and academic experts, publish a policy report titled “AI Downstream Markets and Competition” within the year.

Similar to the KFTC’s 2024 “Generative AI and Competition” report and the 2025 “Data and Competition” report, this survey and the resulting policy report are expected to focus on analyzing specific issues and presenting policy directions that reflect the particular characteristics of the AI service market.

Considering the KFTC’s existing policy direction and trends among overseas competition authorities, the following issues are likely to receive particular attention in this survey:
 

• Fairness in AI integration and distribution processes: Whether the process of embedding AI into various consumer facing products involves restrictions on competition, such as bundling, exclusive dealings, or unfair refusals to deal (access restrictions).

• Self preferencing by agentic AI and distortion of consumer choice: Whether “agentic AI”, which key foreign competition authorities are also highly focused on, could distort consumers’ ability to make rational choices through self-preferencing or non-transparent recommendation algorithm in the course of determining and consuming information and services on behalf of users.

• Harm to consumer interests and improper data collection: Given the consumer facing nature of this market, whether there is a potential for infringement of consumer interests, such as unfair data collection using dark patterns, or false or exaggerated advertising using AI services.