K-pop’s robot gamble: G-Dragon’s agency bets on humanoids, but will it pass fans’ vibe check?

SEOUL – Your next K-pop concert may very well feature robots instead of humans.

At least, this is what South Korean “entertech” company Galaxy Corporation envisions the future of K-pop to be. 

The company, which manages artistes like G-Dragon, Taemin of boyband SHINee, and Kim Jong-kook from variety show Running Man, aims to fuse digital technology with creative content to put entertainment technology front and centre.

Speaking at the media launch event of the company’s new Galaxy Robot Park in eastern Seoul, chief executive Choi Yong-ho said he believed robots would be “deeply integrated” into people’s lives in the next decade or two, and that robots can help overcome the physical limits of individual performers. 

“While we humans have to tour sequentially to places like South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau  when going on a world tour, the advantage of robots is that they can simultaneously hold robot concerts in South Korea, Japan and China,” said Mr Choi.

At the May 15 launch event, the company showed off humanoid robots from Chinese robotics company Unitree, which were dressed in the style of G-Dragon’s elaborate stage costumes and programmed to perform dance moves to the Big Bang leader’s hit songs.

The company aims to start staging K-pop concerts powered by robots at the park by June, and even launch a world tour for the robots in 2027. 

While the idea may sound light years away from conventional K-pop, Galaxy Corporation’s ambitions have drawn investors into its orbit, including Taiwan Mandopop king Jay Chou’s company Star Plus Legend, which reportedly holds a 7 per cent stake in Galaxy.

When G-Dragon signed on to the company in 2023, his contract also included stock options which amounted to about a 2 per cent stake in the company. 

The entertech company has a corporate valuation of 1 trillion won (S$850 million) in December 2025.

But whether human fans will embrace such futuristic ambitions remains uncertain, as earlier experiments by major K-pop companies with AI, avatars and metaverse-linked acts have met with only limited success.

Girl group aespa, under SM Entertainment, had debuted in 2020 with avatar versions of the four members in a virtual universe called Kwangya, but has since shifted focus away from the metaverse concept. 

In 2024, BTS’ agency Hybe launched a virtual four-member girl group Syndi8 under its AI audio subsidiary Supertone. 

The project used AI-assisted voice technology and virtual avatars in an attempt to create a digital idol group, but it failed to gain traction amid much controversy. 

Professor Kim Jeong-seob of Seoul’s Sungshin Women’s University Graduate School of Culture, Industry and Arts, told The Straits Times that the earlier experiments did not translate into mass popularity because music consumption is not driven by just visuals or technological novelty. 

“The issue is whether AI technology can accurately convey the subtleties of human emotions. I think this is a challenge that remains unresolved by technology,” he said.

Tour coordinator Jinny Goh, a G-Dragon fan of 18 years, told ST she had no interest in watching a concert performed by robots, adding that it would be a “dehumanising experience”.

The 33-year-old Singaporean, who frequently flies to Seoul for K-pop concerts and is eagerly awaiting Big Bang’s 20th anniversary world tour kicking off in August, said attending concerts is not just about the music.

“It is about the artiste’s performance, the energy of the atmosphere and fan interactions on stage, which robots will not be able to replicate,” she said, adding that robots will be nothing more than just “moving boom boxes”. 

While Dongguk University’s adjunct professor of global music industry Aiden Hwang acknowledged that virtual or robotic idols lack the authenticity underpinning the parasocial relationships that drive much of K-pop fandom, he argued that the true potential of robot concerts lies not with today’s fans, but with future generations.  

“Considering that today’s young children of four to five years old will only join the idol fandom roughly a decade from now, they are not likely to have as much resistance to AI artistes.

“If we approach this with the mindset of investing for the future, we can be more optimistic about the outcomes,” said Mr Hwang, who was formerly a public relations manager for one of the major K-pop labels. 

After all, South Korea is rapidly wiring itself for an AI-driven future under a national road map unveiled in March 2026 that aims to propel the country into the world’s top three AI powers by 2028.

On May 18, the government announced a 50 billion won plan to build a South Korean AI humanoid robot by 2030 under a public-private partnership project.

Just weeks before that, on May 6, the country’s largest Buddhist sect also unveiled its first-ever robot monk, named Gabi. 

Prof Kim believes that technology, if applied appropriately, can still contribute to the K-pop industry’s growth, noting that it has already improved efficiency in the music production process, while enabling “new musical textures and forms of creativity that were previously difficult to realise”. 

He said: “Ultimately, K-pop in the AI era is likely to evolve not towards eliminating or replacing human artistes, but towards using technology to amplify human creativity and emotional expression to their fullest potential.”