Government Officials Build 25 Work Programs by Chatting with AI

Officials of the Jeonnam-Gwangju Metropolitan Consolidated City created programs themselves by conversing with AI. Without outsourcing to external companies, they expanded the lineup to 25 programs in just one year and five months. The in-house development began in April last year with a single program, the 'AI Spokesperson,' created by the Data Informatization Division. The achievements were introduced at a 'Sharing Session on In-House Developed AI Programs' held at Mudeung Hall of the Gwangju Government Complex on the 21st.

Even the development method was unconventional. Without professional developers or outsourcing contracts worth tens of millions of won, practitioners used so-called 'vibe coding' — repeatedly entering requirements into AI in natural language, having the AI generate code, and verifying the results. Son Gyeong-rok, a researcher at the Air Environment Department of the Gwangju Institute of Health and Environment, built an air pollution inspection and analysis system this way. "Having practitioners who handle inspection data daily build their own tools is the fastest path to AI transformation," Son said.

AI transformation of the public sector is also an official agenda of the central government. Prime Minister Han Seong-sook emphasized AI-driven administrative innovation on the 2nd. Jeonnam-Gwangju had already been moving ahead in the field even before that.

The 25 in-house developed AI programs are being used across administration, from calculating business trip expenses and creating card news to analyzing budget execution status and predicting water quality. Most of them, however, are for internal use. Expanding them to public-facing services requires additional steps, such as hacking prevention, personal data protection, and separate server construction.

The 'Water Quality Complaint Resolution Website' developed by the Water Quality Research Institute of the Waterworks Business Headquarters is an example of applying in-house developed AI programs to public services. It is being prepared so that when users select symptoms of a tap water complaint, they can see the cause, remedies, and a direct contact number all on one screen. In this way, the 'AI for Everyone, Gwangju' vision is being realized one step at a time, starting from within the administration.