Shinsegae I&C to bring AI education to 3,100 rural youth

Shinsegae I&C will provide AI education to more than 3,100 young people in rural areas across the country where AI learning infrastructure remains limited.

The company said Wednesday it will run an AI education donation program at 60 rural schools through December, covering areas including Yangpyeong and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi Province and Seocheon in South Chungcheong Province.

The curriculum goes beyond teaching AI concepts and technical principles, giving students direct exposure to AI technologies used in real industry settings and helping them explore related career paths.

The flagship offering, Junior AI Explorer, targets elementary and middle school students in rural areas and combines AI-focused instruction with career counseling. Hands-on activities include board games using autonomous driving carts and AI checkout systems, as well as a virtual reality experience set inside an unmanned convenience store.

A more advanced track for middle schoolers, Retail Tech AI Classroom, is also offered. Tied to the free-semester program at rural middle schools, it teaches the principles behind AI analytics and AI vision technology.

Students take part in problem-based learning using Google's web-based AI training tool Teachable Machine. The format casts them as managers of a next-generation smart store, tasked with solving retail challenges through AI and data technology.

Shinsegae I&C has run education donation activities since 2013 to narrow the IT education gap between urban and rural regions. Through last year, the program had reached 32,629 students at 457 schools nationwide.

"As AI has become an essential competency for the next generation, we have fully redesigned our education program so that young people can go beyond simply learning about AI — actually using it, building technology-based thinking skills, and discovering their own potential," said Yang Yun-ji, chief executive of Shinsegae I&C.

"We will continue to expand our education donation efforts, drawing on Shinsegae I&C's technical expertise and field experience, so that more young people can explore future technologies and career paths regardless of where they live or the educational environment they are in," Yang added.

Meanwhile, last year the company also conducted software education donation activities for about 3,900 students at 61 schools nationwide. It ran programs including Junior Coding Explorer, which taught the concepts and principles of AI technology, and Retail Tech Coding Classroom, a generative AI-based hands-on course.