Government Operations to Utilize 'AI Agents'… Ministry of Science and ICT Fully Embarks on AI-NEXT

Automation in 5 Areas Including Review, Budget, and National Assembly Response

Public AI Transitions from Simple Assistance to 'Direct Execution'

AI Work Utilization (PG) [Illustration by Kang Min-ji]

The Ministry of Science and ICT has launched the 'AI-NEXT' project, which aims to establish agentic artificial intelligence (AI) across its entire work environment.

As government ministries increasingly accelerate their AI transformation, agentic AI technology, capable of autonomous judgment and execution, is expected to be rapidly adopted in the public administration sector.

According to industry sources on the 10th, the Ministry of Science and ICT is currently pursuing the 'AI-based Administrative Service Development Specialized for the Ministry of Science and ICT (AI-NEXT) Project'.

The ministry initiated the Information Strategy Planning (ISP) project early this month to develop detailed project plans and plans to build specialized AI agents in a total of five areas within this year.

The five areas include support for radio station license review, electromagnetic wave certification review support, budget document analysis, classification and response to National Assembly requests, and news clipping summarization and analysis services.

Based on this, the goal is to enhance the centralized document infrastructure with AI in the coming year and establish an optimal AI system by 2028.

An official from the Ministry of Science and ICT stated, "We have initially secured a budget of 3.17 billion won for this year and plan to specify the budget for advanced development after pilot projects in subsequent years."

In line with recent AI technological advancements, AI transformation is emerging as a key task in the public sector. In particular, as interest grows in agentic AI environments that can autonomously judge and execute, rather than just simple assistance tools, efforts to redesign public administrative processes themselves are gaining momentum.

Not only the Ministry of Science and ICT, but also the Ministry of Economy and Finance is promoting the creation of an intelligent work environment through the 'AI-ONE Platform Construction Project,' which involves an investment of 2.26 trillion won, by centralizing internal documents and introducing specialized AI services based on the use of agents for various tasks.

The industry views the subsequent main and advanced development projects as more significant opportunities than the scale of the ISP projects currently being commissioned. This is because companies that participate in the initial design phase can gain an advantageous position in follow-up projects if they preempt the architecture and technology stack.

Consequently, a fierce competition is intensifying among major domestic IT service companies to secure a leading position in public AI transformation projects.

However, whether the spread of public AI will directly lead to tangible results is a separate issue.

In particular, agentic AI, with its high degree of autonomy, is pointed out as being more challenging to ensure control and accountability compared to existing systems. Given the nature of administrative work, accuracy and explainability of results are essential, and how to verify and audit the agent's judgment process and decision-making flow is emerging as a key challenge.

Security and infrastructure strategies are also emerging as important variables in conjunction with this.

In fact, both the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Economy and Finance are making the linkage with the 'Government-wide Common AI Foundation' a condition for these AI projects.

The Government-wide Common AI Foundation, jointly promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, provides services that central and local governments can utilize, such as private AI models, training data, and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). It is premised on the use of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) cloud, which is managed in a closed environment at the National Government Computer Center's Daegu Center.

In addition, the government is also working on developing methods for AI operation in network-separated environments and establishing measures to prevent internal information leakage (DLP).

An official from the IT industry commented, "Although the public AI market is in its early stages, the scale and scope of projects will rapidly expand if the transformation of work environments centered on agentic AI is fully realized. Ultimately, the key lies not in the technology itself, but in how to design a structure that can stably operate and control it."