**Total Prize of 26 Million Won… Big Tech Mentor Support for AI Service Implementation**
[Seoul=Newsis] Reporter Yoon Hyun-sung = The top 10 teams have been selected to advance to the finals of the AI service competition, which has a total prize pool of 26 million won. These teams will develop real-world AI services over the course of nine weeks with mentors from big tech companies.
The kick-off ceremony for the final 10 teams of the “AI Challenge 2025” competition, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by the National Information Society Agency (NIA), will be held on the 15th at the NIA’s Seoul office.
The AI Challenge 2025 competition aims to support the startup and growth of ventures, startups, and citizen developers with creative AI services and ideas. A total of 124 teams registered between August 19 to September 5, and 10 teams were selected after evaluation to advance to the finals.
The finalist teams will use development tools, data, and digital resources such as an API provided by the integrated test bed to implement their ideas for solving social issues close to citizens’ lives into AI services.
About 70 people, including the 10 finalist teams and competition officials, will attend the ceremony. The event will include team introductions and the first meeting with the mentor group that will accompany them on the nine-week development journey. After the ceremony, mentors and mentees will work to detail the mentoring direction. The mentoring team will include representatives from five big tech companies: Naver Cloud, KT, Upstage, Douzone Bizon, and WiseNut.
Starting with the ceremony, the participant teams will undergo agile development training and participate in expert mentoring processes from September 18 to November 19, lasting about nine weeks. During the development period, a midterm presentation (in October) will be held to check progress and share feedback and provide systematic support.
At the end of the nine-week development period, participants will present and demonstrate their results at the final evaluation event on November 20. The final assessment will comprehensively evaluate problem-solving skills, creativity, and implementation completeness. Prizes and certificates will be awarded to the final nine teams at a later-announced awards ceremony.
One grand prize-winning team will receive the Minister of Science and ICT Award and 10 million won. Two teams will receive the NIA President Award and 5 million won each as runners-up.
Kim Kyung-man, Director of the AI-based Policy Division at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “This kick-off ceremony is a significant occasion for passionate developers taking their first step towards making our society better through AI technology. We hope you’ll fully display your capabilities over the nine-week journey and contribute to the activation of the domestic AI ecosystem with the best experts in the country.”