Seoul AI Platform connects businesses with AI experts in one place

When Gwangjin-gu's AI strategy team needed to quickly assemble an AI policy advisory committee in September, finding suitable candidates proved harder than expected. The team tapped personal networks but came up short — until an acquaintance suggested trying the Seoul AI Platform, a service run by the Seoul AI Foundation. Once the team logged on, it was able to identify a pool of qualified candidates in short order.

"Fortunately, we were able to find the AI experts we needed for the policy committee without much trouble," an official from the team said. "Without the platform, our staff would have had to search individually or make phone calls to track people down — that kind of legwork was avoided." The official added that detailed profiles of listed AI experts made it easier to find the right fit, and noted that the platform's backing by the Seoul Metropolitan Government gave it an added layer of credibility.

The Seoul AI Platform, which the Seoul AI Foundation launched in April, has drawn attention as a one-on-one matchmaking service connecting companies and institutions that need AI services with AI specialists and firms.

A company called Ninewinnit, which provides AI-based marketing automation and advertising services to small businesses and online sellers, faced a similar challenge. While preparing AI-related patent applications, the company ran into unfamiliar technical terminology and complex procedures and needed expert guidance.

Ninewinnit also turned to the Seoul AI Platform. Through the service, the company reached out to an AI specialist for advice and received the help it needed during the patent preparation process.

Cases like those of Gwangjin-gu's AI strategy team and Ninewinnit are not uncommon. Even as the AI era has arrived, many companies and institutions still struggle to find qualified experts and firms when they want to pursue AI projects or arrange consulting, evaluation or lecture services.

To address this, the Seoul AI Foundation built the Seoul AI Platform to aggregate information on AI experts and companies in one place, reduce reliance on personal connections and help organizations find the right partners for their project needs.

The platform's main menus are: AI Experts, which lets users search expert profiles by criteria and send one-on-one collaboration proposals; AI Companies, which offers a searchable list of firms by technology and industry along with the same proposal function; AI Policy, which provides real-time crawling of press releases on AI policies and projects from 86 domestic and international institutions; AI Tools, which supplies information on AI tools by purpose and how to use them; Collaboration Lounge, where users can post open calls to recruit multiple experts or companies; and Communication Lounge, an anonymous forum for sharing AI-related questions and concerns.

The Seoul AI Platform is open to anyone — institutions, companies or individuals — looking for AI experts or firms. To engage a specific expert or company, users search the relevant menu, send a collaboration proposal and wait for the other party to review and approve it, at which point a one-on-one chat window opens. Detailed terms are then negotiated privately before a contract is concluded.

Since its launch on April 15, the platform had recorded 56,356 visitors as of Tuesday, with total registered members reaching 2,631. The platform lists 1,083 AI experts and 565 AI companies, and more than 1,000 general members have also signed up.

The platform has logged 205 collaboration interactions to date. Of 158 one-on-one collaboration proposals, 123 — or 77 percent — resulted in successful matches. Of 47 open recruitment postings, 36, or 76.5 percent, led to successful outcomes. Fifty-four organizations have used the collaboration features in total — all within roughly six months of the platform's launch.

"We plan to continue improving the reliability of expert and company information and the ease of search to broaden access to AI collaboration," a Seoul AI Foundation official said. "We will work to expand the Seoul AI Platform's role as a channel that connects companies with the expertise they need when they encounter new challenges."