POSCO Builds Korea's First AI-Powered 'Contract Fairness System'

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO is set to become the first domestic company to establish an 'Agreement Fairness System' utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), which will be fully operational starting February.

The 'Agreement Fairness System' is a system where POSCO uses deep learning-based AI to comprehensively review transaction agreements with business partners such as suppliers, automatically detecting unfair clauses. These are then improved through legal review, registered as company standards, and continuously monitored.

Last year, POSCO selected the 'Agreement Fairness System Establishment' as a company-wide smart project, and the Legal Office and POSCO ICT collaborated for six months to develop the system. During this process, approximately 16,000 pieces of data including relevant laws, guidelines, rulings, precedents, and internal consultation cases were collected and subjected to multiple rounds of testing.

Previously, the Legal Office manually reviewed agreements requested by each department. Going forward, batch reviews using the 'Agreement Fairness System' are expected to be possible. Through this, POSCO anticipates significantly reducing the average time spent per contract from three hours, enhancing work efficiency through smarter workflows, and proactively preventing legal risks by eradicating unfair clauses in advance via comprehensive agreement reviews.

Currently, POSCO has set the automatic detection scope to identify 'unfair special clauses' under the Subcontracting Act, and plans to consider expanding this to other fair trade-related laws such as the Fair Trade Act, the Agency Act, and the Act on the Regulation of Terms and Conditions.

In the future, POSCO intends to improve this Agreement Fairness System tailored to the business characteristics of each group company, expanding its use across the group. This will lead the way in fostering a desirable fair trade culture and actively practice 'Business with POSCO,' which emphasizes collaboration and mutual growth with stakeholders in all businesses.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.