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 main 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 covered 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, "There are call center services in places like Gyeonggi Province where operators respond directly. However, 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 explained, "In initial tests, there were instances where the AI struggled to recognize voices due to the Busan dialect, and we corrected these issues immediately through the vendor. 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. A representative stated, "The total budget, including setup costs and five years of monthly fees, is approximately 99 million won." This project is 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 representative noted, "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 representative 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 stated it 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 or voice recognition accuracy, have not yet been established.
A city official remarked, "As this is the first case of applying AI to provide childcare information, it was difficult to set specific metrics in advance. We plan to comprehensively assess satisfaction surveys and open-ended feedback during the pilot period."
The city will continuously collect 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 to enhance service reliability and user convenience."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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