Establishment of 'Digital Innovation Office' Next Month
Expansion of Collaboration Including Policy Support AI
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eunbyeol] 'Will the era come when an artificial intelligence (AI) Monetary Policy Committee member attends the Bank of Korea's Monetary Policy Committee meetings?'
The Bank of Korea and Kakao Enterprise (Kakao Enter) have joined forces to develop AI technology. Kakao Enter is a specialized AI solutions subsidiary of Kakao, focusing on data analysis and translation. Collaborating within the same organization alongside the Bank of Korea’s economic experts, the goal is to apply AI not only to economic analysis but also to the Bank of Korea’s policy decision-making.
On the 23rd, the Bank of Korea announced it had signed a business agreement with Kakao Enter to collaborate on AI technology. This is the first case of the Bank of Korea cooperating with an external institution to apply digital new technologies, as part of the 'Mid-to-Long Term Development Strategy (BOK 2030)' announced on the occasion of the Bank’s 70th anniversary.
The two parties will establish a new 'Digital Innovation Office' next month and begin AI research. It is expected that employees from both the Bank of Korea and Kakao Enter will be assigned to the Digital Innovation Office. Jeong Samseon, head of the Bank of Korea’s Management Strategy Team, said, "The central bank has always been interested in ways to utilize AI, but domestic related companies have so far only applied AI in limited areas. We judged that it is necessary to share expertise between the two organizations through joint research and work." Although the Bank of Korea could have commissioned AI companies with its budget, it decided that a department within the Bank is necessary as the use of AI by central banks is expected to increase in the future. Another reason was that many employees within the Bank are interested in utilizing AI.
Recently, AI adoption has been gradually increasing in the financial sector. In commercial banks, 'chatbots' that handle customer consultation tasks are being introduced one after another, and the Financial Supervisory Service has announced plans to use AI for contract review. AI contract review is a system where AI first assesses the appropriateness to support reviewers, moving away from the existing method where Financial Supervisory Service employees visually check for regulatory violations or consumer rights infringements.
Since the technology is not yet highly advanced, simple AI technologies will be applied at the Bank of Korea for now. Typical examples include AI drafting minutes during meetings among employees and using translation functions when analyzing overseas reports or data.
Team leader Jeong said, "Ultimately, we are considering using AI for policy decision-making as well, starting with AI for work support and gradually developing it step by step. Policy support AI is an area that companies have not attempted, so we expect to achieve good results in the future."
Among various companies, the reasons for choosing Kakao Enter included not only technological capability but also fast decision-making and the engineers’ challenging attitude. Kakao Enter is reported to have been spun off as an AI-dedicated corporation from its parent company, enabling rapid decision-making related to collaboration.
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