Culture ministry to host AI content festival at Coex in November

The culture ministry said Monday it will hold the AI Content Festival 2026 at The Platz in Coex, Seoul, from Nov. 12 to 14, adding a business-to-business program that pairs artificial intelligence content and technology with market demand.

The festival, organized with the Korea Creative Content Agency, is both a public showcase where visitors can try AI-generated video, music and games and an industry exchange. This year it introduces the investment and collaboration track.

The new program runs Nov. 12-13 at Coex Startup Branch and comprises one-on-one meetings with domestic and foreign investors, presentations by participating companies on their content and technology, project briefings from companies with specific partnership needs, and a networking session. Unlike conventional pitches, it will also run demand-driven sessions in which buyers and investors set out the content, technology and terms they need, and companies then propose how they can meet them. Kiddist Studio, MBC C&I and Daekyo Investment are among those scheduled to present needs, including AI-assisted video production, joint extended-reality projects and investment in promising content companies.

The exhibition is organized around four themes — story, play, make and cross — covering viewing, hands-on experience, creation and industrial convergence. MBC C&I will run a workshop on planning and producing dramas based on its experience making a feature film with generative AI, and Jiro will demonstrate the production of a virtual K-pop idol. Works by creators from the AI content academy, including video, virtual reality, extended reality and games, will also be shown.

The lecture program opens Nov. 12 with Seoul National University professor emeritus Kim Nan-do on how AI is changing the way audiences consume content, followed by panels including Dongguk University distinguished professor Koh Sam-sok on how AI affects creation, distribution and revenue structures. Sessions on Nov. 13 for creators will cover CJ 4DPLEX's ScreenX production process and its use of AI, while Nov. 14 is aimed at the general public, with science content creator Orbit and profiler Pyo Chang-won speaking on future jobs and responsible use of technology.

Exhibition and hands-on areas are free. Visitors can register in advance on the festival's official website through Nov. 11.

"Competitiveness in the content industry in the AI era goes beyond technological development, to connecting that technology with new creation and industrial value," said Kim Kyung-hwa, director of the ministry's cultural industry and media policy bureau. "The ministry will actively support creators' imagination and technological innovation so they can create new content and markets."