Something is coming, and it is not small

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Song Gil-young

The author is a data analyst and writer.

In recent weeks, I met acquaintances who each described changes unfolding in their lives. Their stories revealed how swiftly artificial intelligence is reshaping daily routines, professional decisions and even longstanding industries.

The first story came from the father of a high school student preparing for university admission. Unlike in the past, when entrance exams such as the national scholastic ability test determined college placement, today students must devote equal energy to performance assessments that span the academic year.

Assignments are no longer simple book reports based on classroom material. Students are expected to craft arguments, add personal perspectives and cite news articles or academic writings as references. The result is often a miniature thesis. For those trained to think creatively, the task may be manageable, but even at the university level, such practice is not easily acquired.

The father knew that parents should let children solve problems on their own. Yet in the unforgiving race for admissions, patience is not always possible. Watching his child fall behind, unable to begin overdue assignments, he reluctantly suggested turning to ChatGPT. The idea of using AI as a competitive tool reminded him of the story of the mother of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) calligrapher Han Seok-bong, who famously urged her son to focus on calligraphy while she sliced rice cakes. But unlike that parable, he could not voice the thought aloud.

The second story involved a professional who recently crossed borders for work. After years of varied experience, he entered a contract with a major multinational firm. The agreement, dozens of pages long, was dense with safeguards and legal jargon. He admitted he would struggle to understand it even in Korean, much less in English.

Because the pay was modest, hiring a law firm for review would have cost more than the contract itself. In the past, he would have signed, despite recognizing the imbalance. This time, he chose differently. Uploading the file into an AI service, he quickly received a point-by-point critique identifying unfair clauses.

The service even offered to draft a corrective email. With a simple prompt, he obtained a revised contract and sent it back to the company. The entire process took less than 10 minutes. His account left me thinking uneasily about the future for another acquaintance's child who had just entered law school.

The third account came from an entrepreneur I first met at a lecture. Formerly a marketing executive at a major corporation, he was captivated by the rapid advances in AI-driven video generation and launched a business producing advertisements.

In the past, television dominated advertising. The cost of airtime was steep, and so were production expenses — set construction, celebrity fees and special effects often pushed budgets into the billions of won.

Now, in a multiplatform era, companies need far more content but can allocate less per piece. AI video tools have become an attractive solution, producing high-quality work at a fraction of the price.

He offered an example. Recreating a celebrity’s younger image with special effects that once required enormous spending and weeks of labor. With AI, the cost fell to one-tenth, the timeline to mere days, and revisions could be made in less than 24 hours. In both speed and price, the new approach was superior.

Within less than a month, I had heard such stories from a student’s parent, a freelancer working globally, and a corporate professional turned entrepreneur. The common thread was unmistakable. Something is coming.

The rhythm of daily life often masks gradual change. Shifts may appear slowly, depending on the field and scale of work. But the lesson these episodes point to is clear: The transformation driven by AI does not discriminate. It reaches students and parents, freelancers and employees, small firms and large industries alike.

To dismiss it as someone else’s concern may prove costly. When signals of change surface simultaneously across such different walks of life, they may point to something larger approaching.

Do you feel it as well? Something is coming. And it is not small.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.