AI has found its way into nearly every corner of daily life.
Even in the public sector, civil servants are increasingly turning to generative AI when drafting reports or preparing presentation materials.
Amid that shift, Jeon Ji-yeol, a grade-7 IT civil servant in the Smart Policy Division of Seoul's Mapo-gu Office, has drawn attention by developing an "AI Notepad" — a tool designed to support the full range of administrative tasks, from document drafting to content creation.
The AI Notepad is the first project under Mapo Brain, Mapo-gu's AI administrative platform. Jeon led its development, and all Mapo-gu staff have been using it since Friday.
"Civil servants rely heavily on the Hangul word processor for their work, but using AI conveniently within that environment has always been difficult — that was the problem I wanted to solve," Jeon told a reporter Monday afternoon.
His reasoning was straightforward: if staff could access AI directly within the document environment they already use most, productivity would improve significantly.
Acting on that idea, Jeon drew up a development plan in March. After clearing a Seoul Metropolitan Government security review in April, he moved into full development and delivered a finished product in just four months.
During a demonstration Monday, Jeon typed a document in the AI Notepad and entered the prompt "Make a PowerPoint presentation on Mapo's walkable streets." The AI generated the presentation slides almost immediately.
The AI Notepad is a work-support service that lets staff access a range of generative AI tools directly from the administrative-network PCs they use every day.
It can handle drafting plans and reports, proofreading and translating text, creating presentations and images, and answering work-related questions.
The tool is also easy to use. Pressing a keyboard shortcut while working opens the AI Notepad as an overlay on the current screen. Frequently used prompts can be assigned to shortcuts, allowing repetitive tasks — summarizing documents, checking for errors, polishing the formal tone of official correspondence — to be completed in a single keystroke.
An AI chatbot function is built in as well. Staff can ask questions and receive answers in a free-flowing, messenger-style interface, making the tool accessible even to those with no prior experience with generative AI.
Before the official launch, Mapo-gu ran a pilot with more than 30 departments and conducted a survey to refine the tool's features. The district also applied security measures in line with national and public-institution AI security guidelines, following a Seoul Metropolitan Government security review.
Jeon plans to go beyond the AI Notepad and continue work supporting the AI administration campaign pledge of Mapo District Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun, who is serving his ninth elected term.
He intends in particular to develop specialized chatbots for tasks civil servants handle frequently — duty-roster management, budgeting and accounting — with the aim of improving administrative efficiency and reducing wasteful spending.
Jeon, a mathematics graduate from a regional national university, joined Mapo-gu as a grade-9 IT civil servant in January 2009.
He has consistently used technology to solve practical problems on the ground — during the seventh elected term, for instance, he developed an "IT secretary" system to support the district mayor's office.
His appetite for learning has been equally persistent. While serving as a civil servant, he studied statistics and data science at Korea National Open University from 2019 to 2021 to deepen his expertise.
"Starting with the AI Notepad, I want to keep building AI services that staff can actually use comfortably in their day-to-day work," Jeon said.
Mapo-gu sees the AI Notepad as the catalyst for changing how its staff work and for launching a full-scale push toward AI-driven administrative innovation.
Mapo Brain is the district's administrative support service, designed to embed AI across all areas of government work, raise efficiency and deliver changes that residents can feel directly.
The district expects the AI Notepad to free staff from repetitive document tasks so they can focus on core work, speed up administrative processing and ultimately provide better services to residents.
"AI is no longer a technology of the future — it is already part of our everyday lives," District Mayor Yoo said. "Starting with the AI Notepad, we will expand Mapo Brain's capabilities step by step, drive change across the entire district administration, and deliver faster, more convenient, resident-centered public services."
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
