Ministry of SMEs and Startups Introduces 'Chatbot System' at 1357 Call Center

Immediate Response to Simple and Repetitive Inquiries, Reducing Call Waiting Time for Civil Petitioners

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 13th that it has introduced an 'Artificial Intelligence Consultation System (Chatbot System)' to the '1357 SME Integrated Call Center,' starting a pilot operation from that day and launching the official service from the 20th.

Since its promotion to a ministry in 2017, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has continuously enhanced manpower and upgraded the call center consultation system to respond to the steadily increasing consultation demand, thereby improving user convenience and efficiency.

The introduction of this chatbot system is expected to greatly assist in responding to the increased consultation demand following COVID-19. The chatbot system will immediately respond to simple and repetitive inquiries, effectively distributing consultation demand and shortening callers' waiting times, thereby significantly enhancing user satisfaction.

The chatbot system can be accessed via computer (PC) or mobile through the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' website, and it can also be used through the newly introduced 'Visual Automated Response System (ARS)'.

The chatbot system operates in the form of chat text consultations, allowing users to either directly input questions or proceed through a scenario-based method by selecting detailed questions via business-specific or institution-specific classification menus.

The chatbot's knowledge base was constructed based on approximately 530 major questions and answers prioritized by frequency from inquiries received at the call center, along with about 16,000 similar queries. The system's response capability will be continuously enhanced through ongoing knowledge management.

The newly introduced Visual Automated Response System (ARS) mobile service allows call center users to conveniently and quickly receive information based on visual data, which is expected to reduce consultation time. The concurrently established 'AI Consultation Assistant' system is anticipated to aid in accurate information delivery by presenting recommended answer information to consultants based on learning from previous consultations.

Jo Kyung-won, Policy Planning Officer at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "This system upgrade project, along with the Visual Automated Response System (ARS), chatbot, and consultation assistant system, includes efforts to stabilize the system such as preparing for system failures and configuring server redundancy, and we expect to provide a significantly upgraded service."

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