Kakao holds AI ideathon with 5 national universities to accelerate agentic AI talent development

Kakao held an AI ideathon with students from regional national universities as part of its push to develop technology talent and accelerate agentic AI service development.

Kakao announced Friday that it had held an awards ceremony for its ESG program "Kakao Tech Campus Ideathon," designed to nurture AI talent in regional areas. An ideathon — a portmanteau of "idea" and "marathon" — is an event in which participants develop ideas and produce results within a set time frame.

Since 2023, Kakao has hosted the Kakao Tech Campus program in partnership with regional national universities, aiming to close the technology education gap outside the Greater Seoul area and cultivate local technology talent.

The Kakao Tech Campus Ideathon challenges participating university students to identify social problems and explore solutions using agentic AI, with a development project held each year in the second half. This year, 145 students from five regional national universities — Kangwon National University, Kyungpook National University, Pusan National University, Chonnam National University and Chungnam National University — took part Aug. 22-23.

This year's program underwent a full curriculum overhaul, shifting from a focus on web and app development education to agentic AI-based service planning and development. Kakao said it restructured the curriculum in line with the growing importance of agentic AI capabilities, enabling students to design and build AI services themselves and strengthen their problem-solving skills.

The program runs in stages from May through November. It consists of three phases: a pre-course covering the basics of AI service development, a first-stage project focused on hands-on practice with agentic AI services, and a second-stage project in which students define problems and plan, develop and deploy AI services. The ideathon serves as the starting point for the second-stage project.

The top prize went to a Chonnam National University team for its personalized mock interview AI for developers, a service that generates follow-up interview questions based on code submitted by job applicants to help them prepare for interviews. Four other teams received excellence awards: an agent guiding small business owners through the closure process (Kangwon National University), an AI career organization agent (Kyungpook National University), a personalized child-rearing AI (Pusan National University), and an income tax expenditure analysis AI for sole proprietors (Pusan National University).

For the remainder of the program, participants will develop and deploy agentic AI-based services before presenting their final results at a showcase in mid-November. Kakao professionals will provide mentoring throughout the period.

"Demand from industry for agentic AI service capabilities is growing rapidly, but educational opportunities to gain systematic experience in this area remain limited," said Seo Eun-hee, Kakao's technology talent development leader. "We will continue to quickly reflect changes and demands from the industry in our curriculum so that students can grow into technology talent."

Meanwhile, Kakao operates a range of other AI talent development programs beyond the ideathon. Among them is its AI education program Tech for Impact Campus, which the company plans to expand to a total of 18 universities this year.