Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation launches academy to drive AI-powered social welfare innovation

The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation is moving to cultivate the next generation of talent to lead change in social welfare in the age of AI.

The foundation announced Monday that it held the inaugural launch ceremony of the CMK Social Welfare Innovation Leaders Academy on Friday at On Dream Society in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The CMK Social Welfare Innovation Leaders Academy is a talent development program in the social welfare sector that the foundation is launching for the first time this year. It was established to train researchers and frontline practitioners who can drive future social change amid a rapidly shifting social environment. The inaugural cohort comprises 30 participants, including university and graduate students majoring in social welfare-related fields at the junior level or above, as well as social welfare field workers with at least three years of experience who are 34 or younger.

The program is a public-private-academic partnership jointly run by the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Seoul National University's Social Welfare Research Institute. OpenAI Korea is participating as a technology partner, providing AI agent-based hands-on training aimed at solving social problems.

The program runs for approximately six months from July through December. Participants will complete two overnight residential sessions at Seoul National University, followed by a three-month action-learning project. Topics covered include policy design to address emerging social risks such as the rise of single-person households, using physical spaces to tackle social problems, mental health and integrated care, legal rights advocacy in everyday life, and AI-driven innovation in social welfare work. Teams will carry out the full process — from identifying social problems to implementing solutions — through group projects.

Participants will receive project funding and expert mentoring. Top-performing project teams will be awarded scholarships, and outstanding participants will have the opportunity to present their results at an international social welfare conference in the United States later this year.

The launch ceremony was attended by Kim Geol, vice chairman of the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation; Eun Seong-ho, director general for population and social services policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare; Park Jung-min, director of Seoul National University's Social Welfare Research Institute; and Ko Ki-seok, head of policy at OpenAI Korea.

"The goal of this academy is to nurture talent that can uphold the core values of social welfare while leading change in a rapidly shifting social environment," Kim said. "We hope that young social welfare professionals will grow into innovators who drive change on the ground and carry forward the spirit of K-philanthropy."

Meanwhile, the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-koo Foundation is a social innovation foundation that contributes to developing creative future talent and building a sustainable social innovation ecosystem, grounded in the entrepreneurial spirit and social contribution philosophy of its founder, Honorary Chairman Chung Mong-koo. Since its establishment in 2007, the foundation has worked to address social problems through challenge and innovation across the fields of culture, welfare, healthcare and education.