[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] The government has begun developing public AI services by recruiting private-sector AI experts into its policy organizations and even directly hiring developers. Lee Ji-soo, a former executive at SamsungElectronics(005930), has been appointed as the Presidential Secretary for National AI Policy, while Kim Se-woong, a former vice president at Kakao(035720), has joined as the head of the National AI Service Innovation Task Force. This marks a shift away from the traditional practice of outsourcing public IT development to external companies, as the government now aims to create AI services directly.

Beyond securing AI models and infrastructure, the new challenge is to transform actual administrative services and boost productivity in industrial settings. The key lies in bringing the technology and service development experience accumulated in the private sector into the government and translating them into tangible results.

Recruiting Talent from SamsungElectronics and Kakao… Integrating Private-Sector Experience into Policy

Lee Ji-soo, a former executive at SamsungElectronics, was recently appointed as the National AI Policy Secretary at the Blue House. After graduating from Seoul National University with a degree in Industrial Engineering and earning a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Secretary Lee served as a professor at Purdue University before joining SamsungElectronics in 2015. There, she worked in the Mobile Communications Division on AI strategy and the development of the voice assistant, New Bixby.

Ha Jeong-woo, Executive Vice Chairman of the National AI Strategy Committee, described Secretary Lee as the nation’s leading UX (user experience) expert. His track record of implementing AI technology into actual products and services and improving user experience is expected to be leveraged in policy-making.

Kim Se-woong, former Vice President and AI Synergy Performance Leader at Kakao, was appointed head of the National AI Service Innovation Task Force. Having founded the tech startup MightyWorks in 2009, Director Kim joined Kakao in 2019, where he gained experience in AI technology development, service commercialization, and infrastructure construction. He began his duties as head of the task force on the 2nd.

Shifting from Outsourced Public IT to In-House Development… 26 Private-Sector Developers Deployed

The National AI Service Innovation Task Force, led by Director Kim, is an organization dedicated to developing public AI services

in-house

. Of the 61 total staff members, 26 are private-sector developers, accounting for approximately 43 percent. The task force also includes 16 AI Champions from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, 13 personnel from various government ministries, and 6 experts from related agencies.

The biggest difference lies in the development approach. Previously, the government would set requirements and a budget, and external IT companies would develop and deliver the systems. In contrast, the Task Force hires private-sector developers as fixed-term civil servants and entrusts them directly with everything from identifying problems in administrative settings to developing and implementing AI services.

A high-ranking government official explained, “The task force will play a role similar to that of an FDE (Chonbang Engineer) in government AI projects.” An FDE is an engineer who goes to the client’s site to identify problems, analyze data, and develop and implement AI solutions. Unlike traditional system integration (SI), which delivers systems based on predetermined requirements, this approach involves finding problems on-site and creating solutions.

The task force will focus on developing services that citizens will actually use, such as public Agent AI systems. The Ministry of Science and ICT is also bolstering its development workforce by recruiting an additional 19 private-sector expert developers.

National AI Strategy Committee’s 7 Task Forces… 10,000 Young People to Gain Hands-On AI Experience The National AI Strategy Committee

is also finalizing its implementation tasks. At its third plenary meeting on the 6th, the committee approved plans to form and operate seven task forces (TFs) that will address superintelligence preparedness, cyber resilience, the domestic AI model and semiconductor ecosystem, and data acquisition.

Key objectives include validating more than 10 combinations of domestically developed AI models and neural processing units (NPUs), as well as developing three types of AI services and applying them to at least five public and industrial sites. The committee is also working to secure more than 1 trillion tokens of training data and to develop scenarios for complex failures and recovery at AI data centers.

Initiatives linking youth employment with the cultivation of AI talent are also noteworthy. The Youth Leap Task Force plans to provide 10,000 young people with opportunities to experience the practical application of AI in industrial settings through projects such as the AI Transformation (AX) initiative in manufacturing. The goal is to support hands-on work experience rather than simply securing employment. In addition, the government will select at least three global AI partner countries and identify culture and content-related projects, such as a K-Culture AI platform and an AI cultural industry cluster.

Will Private-Sector Experience Lead to Tangible Results for the Public?

A series of figures with backgrounds in

private-sector

technology companies have joined the government’s AI leadership team. Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon previously served as the head of LG Corp. AI Research, while Vice Chairman Ha Jung-woo was formerly the head of development for Naver’s HyperClova X. Lee Hae-min, Senior Secretary for AI Future Planning at the Blue House, worked at Google. They have been joined by individuals with experience in AI product development and commercialization at SamsungElectronics and Kakao.

Now that the government has not only recruited private-sector experts but also established its own internal development organization, concrete results are crucial. The success or failure of the government’s AI policy will likely hinge on how much public AI services reduce administrative burdens and alleviate public inconvenience, how much hands-on experience they provide to young people, and how much they boost productivity in industrial settings.