The AI gamble behind ‘Agent Kim Reactivated’
The first K-drama to feature a fully AI-generated sequence has drawn both praise and backlash, exposing a growing divide over AI's place in the future of Korean storytelling
"Agent Kim Reactivated" features a fully AI-generated flashback scene.
Morpheus Studio
Words by Kayti Burt
Agent Kim Reactivated, a Korean drama about a former spy who must tap back into his killer skillset in order to rescue his teen daughter, just wrapped its 10-episode run on Netflix globally and on SBS TV domestically in South Korea. The action thriller has been one of the most-watched K-dramas of the year around the world, despite also being the first K-drama to use artificial intelligence to generate an entire sequence.
While the use of generative AI technology has been met with backlash in the United States and many other countries due to its drain on public utilities and resources, exacerbation of wealth inequality, and impacts on the human labor force, public sentiment in South Korea around the use of generative AI is among the most positive in the world. As South Korea’s TV and film industry continues to implement this technology more comprehensively into its content, could this strategy impact fannish enthusiasm for K-dramas globally, including in the United States?
A fully AI-generated sequence
The second episode of Agent Kim Reactivated begins with a three-minute sequence that is fully AI-generated. The episode chunk in question is a black-and-white flashback to Agent Kim’s time as a spy. It features an AI-generated likeness of series star So Ji-sub riding a motorbike through a wintry mountain pass in pursuit of his political target. The scene also includes a gunfight, hand-to-hand combat, and a car plunging into water. Perhaps more notably, it features close-up shots of characters, some of whom are played by human actors in the rest of the series. According to The Korea Times, the sequence was created using AICRON, an AI platform developed by South Korean visual effects specialists.
The AI-generated sequence has been touted as a historic success in South Korean media. "The significance lies in using AI to produce an entire story-critical sequence, instead of just editing a few seconds of VFX shots," Ryu Jae-hwan, vice president of production company Morpheus Studio, told Korea Herald. "Agent Kim Reactivated had a clear vision to incorporate AI from the start, making it possible to produce a high-quality AI sequence. This is a strong example of how AI can become both a creative tool and an excellent partner for creators with strong ideas.” The article notes that the production saved on the cost of expensive sets, location shoots, pyrotechnics, and visual effects.
Not everyone’s a fan
The use of generative AI by Agent Kim Reactivated’s production team has not been met with such enthusiasm by English-language fans. The top comment on a Korea Herald social media post about the story reads, “Thanks for the heads up. Now I know to avoid it. Let’s not normalize this. AI can have a place, but anything to do with replacing creatives/artists is corny.” Another comment from Instagram user @joy.in.transit, remarks on the low quality of the sequence: “I knew there was a reason why I didn't think much of these scenes. I didn't know why at the time of watching. It felt like it was just going through the motions with no real connection. Now it makes sense!”
On TikTok, Jess at @daebakpod, an account that does deep dives on K-dramas, posted a reel entitled, “Why This AI Action Scene Is Terrible for K-Dramas,” and it’s worth a watch in its entirety. The self-described “crashout” responds directly to Ryu’s comments, noting that it’s a slippery slope between producing a three-minute sequence with AI and producing an entire episode with AI. At the time of this writing, the reel has received more than 73,000 likes, and its top comment reads, “I hate how much AI is being pushed by K-dramas. It’s such a turnoff.”
@daebakpod A little crashout over the AI in Agent Kim Reactivated… #kdrama #koreandrama #kdramalover ♬ Mozart/Requiem "Lacrimosa"(1394506) - Mint
Attitudes around AI
Like all issues, culture informs public sentiment around the use of AI. In South Korea, a country that stands to gain an economic advantage in the AI arms race due to its production of the memory chips necessary to fuel data centers, people tend to be less negative about the future of AI compared to other countries. In a 2025 Pew Research survey conducted in 25 countries, South Korea was the most optimistic about the rise of the use of AI in daily life. Only 16 percent of South Koreans (compared to about half of Americans surveyed) said they were “more concerned than excited” about the use of AI, with 61 percent saying they were, “equally concerned and excited” and 22 percent saying they were, “more excited than concerned.”
As the MIT Tech Review reports, an enthusiasm for AI may be related to South Korea’s historic use of technology to move from an impoverished country in the aftermath of the Korean War in the 1950s to an economic powerhouse today. More recently, the South Korean stock market has seen a 200 percent year-on-year surge as retail investors bet on the continued growth of memory chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
“The South Korean government has designated an AI-powered Fourth Industrial Revolution as the country’s path forward and aggressively promoted and invested in it,” Chihyung Jeon, a professor of science and technology policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, told MIT Tech Review. “Because the national agenda on AI prioritizes economic development, there isn’t much reflection on the social, political, ethical dimensions of the technology.”
AI in K-dramas and on Netflix
Meanwhile, the South Korean TV industry seems to be moving full steam ahead with the use of generative AI. While Agent Kim Reactivated may be the first example of a K-drama using AI to generate an entire sequence rather than just an establishing shot or a background crowd, it is not the first example of generative AI use in a K-drama. Other recent series that have used AI include Our Universe, In Your Radiant Season, and Legend of the Kitchen Soldier. Perplexity AI, an American company currently being sued by CNN for AI copyright theft, bought product placement in recent K-dramas Nice to Not Meet You and Sold Out on You. The company also tapped Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae for a slick ad.
More broadly, Netflix productions have increasingly been using AI to cut costs and human labor. The company revealed in a recent earnings report to shareholders that roughly 300 productions across the streamer’s library have used generative AI so far this year, with a majority of the use coming in the post-production process. Examples included Indian sports series Glory, Brazilian soccer miniseries Brasil 70: A Saga do Tri, and historical docuseries The American Experiment. In 2025, Netflix added 597 new “Netflix Originals” to its content library in 2025, according to What’s on Netflix; if that rate and the rate of AI use stays consistent for 2026 and 2027, then that rate of AI use in the production process represents a good chunk of Netflix’s total output. According to Variety, the company stated, “We are increasingly leveraging these tools to deliver higher-quality output more quickly and at a lower cost than traditional methods. In some cases, productions would have had to leave out key shots and sequences in the absence of GenAI technology.”
The storytelling cost of AI
So Ji-sub stars in "Agent Kim Reactivated."
Courtesy of SBS TV
Some viewers did not notice that the scene in question was AI-generated. The Agent Kim Reactivated producers were smart in choosing a flashback sequence for their unabashed use of generative AI to replace human artists. As a flashback, the scene is meant to look different from the warmth of Kim’s life with his daughter and even the gritty gloom of Kim’s clashes with thugs. It is meant to feel cold, lifeless, and emotionally bankrupt—all qualities AI-generated images excel at evoking. However, to call this sequence a triumph underestimates the role pathos, melodrama, and deep expression of emotions has played in the global K-drama boom. The AI-generated sequence in question is devoid of those qualities, and is weaker for it.
In watching the AI-generated action flashback, I wonder how much stronger this sequence could have been if the series’ producers gave the human artists employed for this production a shot at it. The producers claimed to not have the budget to create a sequence like this one without AI, but what choices actor So Ji-sub might have made if he were tasked with expressing details about his life as an agent by telling rather than showing? What might we have learned about his present-day character by whom he chose to confide this information in? I would argue that the reason why many viewers did not realize this sequence was AI-generated is precisely because it was so shallow and soulless. It is perfunctory in getting details of Agent Kim’s past missions across, but not in making us feel anything about it.
I worry that Netflix executives and K-drama producers will learn the wrong lessons from Agent Kim Reactivated’s success: that global viewers are okay with AI-generated sequences that push beyond the use of the technology as a tool and into the territory of fully AI-generated scenes as a replacement for stories created by humans. The decision to wade further into AI-generated storytelling might seem like a savvy, cost-cutting measure in the short-term, but it threatens the future of K-dramas on the global stage.
Published on August 4, 2026
Words by Kayti Burt
Kayti Burt (she/her) is a pop culture journalist based in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her areas of expertise include Korean entertainment and fan culture. She is a member of the Television Critics Association and the Freelance Solidarity Project. Find her on BlueSky @kaytiburt.bsky.social.