COVID-19 has caused many changes socially and economically. While closing their workplaces and stopping face-to-face meetings, companies expanded non-face-to-face activities such as working from home, webinar. In addition, consumers switched activities such as education, daily necessities purchase, food delivery, and fitness to online or mobile methods. COVID-19 caused a rapid change in the existing supply and demand system, and the changed pattern of economic activity is more likely to continue in the future.

The rapid transformation of lifestyle in the global pandemic situation was possible thanks to digital technology that has continued to develop over the past 30 years since the spread of the Internet in the 1990s. Digital technology has become a general-purpose technology that causes fundamental changes in economic, industrial, and social environment, including education, jobs, and lifestyles, beyond the level of limited use for specific products or services.

In particular, digital technology has undergone a rapid commercialization due to the expansion of infrastructure for high-speed transmission and computation of large amounts of data, the emergence of data-based applications, and the simultaneous development of hardware technology. The demand for digital technology has soared due to COVID-19, and it has emerged at the forefront of our society.

This phenomenon, also called digital transformation, is felt as a rapid and overall change in society. However, Companies has been feeing the impact of digital transformation before Covid-19. Advances in digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, Cloud, Big Data, and Mobile have provided companies with opportunities to innovate through new business models, while causing fundamental changes in the way companies work.

Digital transformation is expected to be positive for productivity improvement and economic growth by promoting the emergence of new products and services and enhancing work efficiency. In addition, digital transformation will promote the expansion of digital trade, thereby expanding export opportunities for products and services through digital. On the other hand, while the risk of cyber security is expected to increase due to high dependence on digital technology, there are also concerns that automation and digitalization of work may have a negative impact on employment.

Accordingly, this study examines tasks for digital transformation and policy directions for stable transition to a digital society in six dimensions: corporate, government policy, regulation, job, education, and global environment.

Chapter 1 identifies the key elements and expected effects of a company's digital transformation, and presents the patterns and levels of digital transformation of domestic companies. Chapter 2 examines policy challenges for digital transformation of SMEs so that SMEs can grow into small and medium-sized enterprises by using digital to increase productivity and strengthening innovation capabilities. Chapter 3 preemptively examines all problems related to the emergence of new industries using digital technology to seek ways to improve regulations that help the smooth growth of new industries. Chapter 4 quantitatively analyzes whether industrial robots, a specific form of automation, replace domestic jobs. Chapter 5 discusses the transition to digital education using artificial intelligence and its tasks as an alternative to solving the problems of our public education. Chapter 6 analyzes the current situation centering on digital trade, a new economic opportunity in the digital era, and examines recent trade issues.

This report summarizes the policy directions that can minimize the side effects that may be caused by digital tansformation while using digital transformation as a stepping stone for the growth of the Korean economy.

First of all, in order to produce a good performance for digital transformation of domestic SMEs, it is necessary to diagnose the readiness of SMEs for digital transformation and provide necessary policy support to SMEs while conducting consulting on what digital technologies and capabilities to be equipped with. In addition, policy integration and coordination is needed so that the government's various digital transformation policies for SMEs can be linked to each other.

Second, it is necessary to clarify regulations in order to harmonize newly emerging technologies and industries with the existing system in the process of transition to a digital society. Regulatory reform has been recognized as deregulation, but the current rapid digitization requires clarification of regulations, preemptive modification and timely provision of regulations, and advancement of regulatory quality.

Third, the trend of robot increase is expected to continue due to continuous digital transformation and industrial structure reorganization, so it is necessary to protect the vulnerable, centering on mid-skilled jobs in the manufacturing industry. It is necessary to expand vocational education so that workers can move smoothly to areas where labor demand is expanding, and to help higher education acquire robot utilization skills and complementary skills.

Fourth, the educational gap should be narrowed by using artificial intelligence. It is analyzed that non-face-to-face education due to COVID-19 has decreased academic ability and widened the educational gap. In order to solve this problem, policy efforts to improve the quality of education, such as strengthening learning feedback, spreading customized education at each student level, and introducing a continuous academic diagnosis system, are considered to be feasible through transition to digital education using artificial intelligence.

Finally, in order to expand the market through digital trade, digital trade statistics should be advanced, digital trade agreements should be expanded, systems should be established to preemptively respond to overseas data regulations, and support measures should be prepared to resolve digital trade disputes for SMEs.

Preface
Executive Summary

Chapter 1 Advancements in Digital Technology and Changes in Businesses
　Section 1 Introduction: Challenges of Digital Transformation
　Section 2 Concepts, Benefits, and Challenges of Digital Transformation
　Section 3 Patterns of Digital Transformation in Domestic Businesses
　References
　Appendix

Chapter 2 Policy Tasks for Digital Transformation of SMEs
　Section 1 Background of the Discussion
　Section 2 Current Status of Digital Transformation in Domestic SMEs
　Section 3 International Case Studies on Digital Transformation Policies for SMEs
　Section 4 Current Status of Domestic Digital Transformation Policies
　Section 5 Policy Tasks for Digital Transformation of Domestic SMEs
　References

Chapter 3 Regulatory Reform in the Digital Era
　Section 1 Current Status of Regulations on Emerging Technologies and Industries
　Section 2 Regulatory Status and Improvement Directions for the Data Industry
　Section 3 Regulatory Issues and Improvement Strategies for Emerging and Converging Technologies
　Section 4 Proposing a Framework for Regulatory Reform to Promote Emerging Technologies and Industries
　References
　Appendix

Chapter 4 Robots and Jobs
　Section 1 Introduction
　Section 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Discussion
　Section 3 Data and Basic Statistics
　Section 4 Empirical Model
　Section 5 Empirical Analysis
　Section 6 Conclusion and Policy Implications
　References

Chapter 5 Transition to Education Using Artificial Intelligence and Challenges
　Section 1 Introduction
　Section 2 Diagnosis of Korea’s Education Level Using OECD PISA Data
　Section 3 Education After COVID-19
　Section 4 Private Education
　Section 5 School Education and Out-of-School Education
　Section 6 Artificial Intelligence Education
　Section 7 Tasks for Introducing AI Education and Policy Directions
　References

Chapter 6 Digital Trade and New Opportunities
　Section 1 Introduction
　Section 2 Expansion of Digital Trade and Digitally-Based Service Trade
　Section 3 Estimation of Potential Size of Domestic ITES Trade
　Section 4 Digital Trade Barriers and Companies' Difficulties
　Section 5 Conclusion and Policy Implications
　References
　Appendix

Chapter 7 Strategies to Support Digital Transformation
　References

ABSTRACT