The city of Busan announced it will pilot an AI-based automated consultation system, the 'Busan Childcare Voice Bot,' until November 30, to provide comprehensive childcare information during administrative downtime, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
The 'Busan Childcare Voice Bot' consolidates information from six different childcare sectors, allowing citizens to easily and quickly find information about childcare facilities anytime, anywhere.
Any citizen in need of childcare can call the dedicated number 24/7, providing details such as their child's age, preferred time, and location to receive tailored childcare information via mobile text. The services include home care through 'Childcare Services' and facility care options like 'Hourly Childcare,' '365 Open Hourly Childcare Centers,' 'Community Child Centers,' 'Together Care Centers,' and 'After School Academies,' totaling six sectors.
Busan's claim of being 'the first in the nation' does not imply that AI consultation services are entirely new in South Korea.
A representative from Busan's Women and Family Affairs Department stated, "While there are call center services with human operators in places like Gyeonggi Province, we believe Busan is the first to implement AI that recognizes user voices and provides childcare information." This means that while AI consultation services are not new nationwide, applying them specifically to the childcare sector is a first.
Before the pilot, the city conducted approximately 1,500 tests with facility staff to enhance AI learning and refine consultation scenarios.
A city official noted, "In initial tests, there were instances where the AI struggled to recognize voices due to the Busan dialect, and we made immediate corrections through the vendor whenever issues were identified. We did not analyze the initial voice recognition accuracy separately due to this refinement process."
If the AI misinterprets user input or repeatedly provides incorrect information, alternative consultation routes will be offered. During business hours, if errors exceed a certain threshold, calls will be redirected to the Busan call center. Outside of business hours, users will receive a text with a link to access the six childcare information options online.
The city plans to compare actual user input with the words recognized by the AI based on call logs and will adjust the consultation scenarios accordingly.
This pilot project is funded solely by the city of Busan, with a total budget of approximately 99 million won, which includes setup costs and monthly fees for this year. The project was developed based on an already commercialized AI consultation service (in SaaS form), allowing for a relatively quick setup by refining existing scenarios rather than developing everything from scratch.
Regarding annual maintenance costs, the official stated, "This year, we will only incur monthly fees after the setup is complete," estimating the monthly fee to be around 1.45 to 1.46 million won.
The system was developed through a negotiated contract with a company based in Seoul under a digital service catalog agreement. The official explained, "AI-related contracts have a special contract form that allows for single-source contracts with registered vendors in the procurement office. At the time of contract review in February, we initially identified one vendor capable of providing the desired SaaS service, and by the time of the contract, there were about two."
Regarding local vendor participation, the city focused on companies that met contract requirements, including registration in the procurement office's digital service catalog and security verification.
Busan plans to analyze consultation history, usage numbers, citizen satisfaction, and feedback after the pilot ends on November 30 to inform the official launch. However, specific criteria for determining the transition to full operation, such as usage numbers, voice recognition accuracy, and satisfaction levels, have not yet been established.
A city official remarked, "As this is the first case of applying AI to provide childcare information, it was challenging to set specific metrics in advance. We plan to comprehensively assess satisfaction during the pilot period and gather open-ended feedback for evaluation."
The city will continuously accept user satisfaction and improvement suggestions through external links included in text notifications and will utilize identified complaint types and error cases from consultation history to enhance the system. Information on childcare facility operations will also be regularly updated.
Kim So-young, Director of the Busan Women and Family Affairs Bureau, stated, "Through the childcare voice bot, we aim to ensure citizens can access necessary information without time constraints. We will rigorously verify voice recognition and consultation scenarios during the pilot period to enhance service reliability and user convenience."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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