[Edaily Reporter LEE SEON-WOO ] Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining attention as a solution to enhance fairness and transparency in the selection process for event management agencies for regional festivals, performances, and other events. Experts explain that even with the technology currently in use, it is possible to significantly prevent recurring issues in public bidding processes, such as the management of evaluation committee members and conflicts of interest.

Cho Jun-ho, CEO of Clioant, an AI-based bidding solutions company (pictured), said in a phone interview with E-Daily on the 22nd, “AI is expected to have a significant effect in reducing the administrative burden by cutting down on the time and manpower required for recruiting and selecting evaluation committee members, as well as evaluating proposals.”
CEO Cho identified proposal evaluation as the stage of the public bidding process where AI can be adopted most quickly. He explained that AI can detect anomalies—such as the concentration of points on a specific company—through data analysis. CEO Cho stated, “By adapting the Bid Rigging Indicator Analysis System (BRIAS), which the Fair Trade Commission has been using since 2006 to investigate bid-rigging, we can easily apply it to technical evaluations, such as proposal reviews, even now.”
He further explained that the recruitment and selection of evaluation committee members—a process that often sparks controversy over fairness and transparency in public bidding—could be significantly improved by centralizing their records. By assigning a unique ID to each evaluation committee member and compiling evaluation results, it would be possible to identify suspicious patterns involving specific companies and committee members through data analysis.
CEO Cho said, “Just as with the Fair Trade Commission’s BRIAS, the centralization of evaluation committee member records can be achieved by expanding the Evaluation Committee System—which the Public Procurement Service established in 2021 by consolidating approximately 4,700 evaluation committee members across 14 sectors—to local government contracts.”
It is also possible to preemptively assess the potential for conflicts of interest by cross-referencing data—such as an evaluator’s affiliation, advisory roles, and consulting history—with contract records in the Public Procurement Service’s “Nara Jangteo” platform. CEO Cho noted, “Since this involves the use of sensitive personal information such as income, it is advisable to limit the scope to evaluators who have been finally selected or those for whom suspicious activity has been detected.”
The Korea Public Procurement Service began piloting an AI-based technical evaluation support system this past August. It is also preparing to introduce a system by the end of the year that will automatically analyze whether bid notices comply with laws and regulations.