Kakao Pay Insurance Holds First In-House Hackathon "Surethon"

Discovering Innovative Ideas for AI-Driven Service and Work Process Transformation

On December 3, Kakao Pay Insurance announced that it had successfully held its first company-wide in-house hackathon, “Surethon,” with participation from all employees.

“Surethon” is a name that combines Kakao Pay Insurance and Hackathon, and was designed to validate the potential for innovation in insurance services and internal work processes using artificial intelligence (AI). The event was held under the theme “The Moment Ideas Become Reality: Imagining the Future of Insurance with AI,” in collaboration with its official partner Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing participants with access to cutting-edge AI tools such as Amazon Q and Kiro.

A total of 22 teams and 61 participants competed enthusiastically in the event. Not only developers, but also employees from a variety of non-development fields-including management, marketing, and claims-took part, demonstrating a culture of collaboration that transcended job boundaries. Participants used AI tools to turn their ideas into prototypes and directly tested their feasibility for real-world service applications.

Younggeun Jang, CEO of Kakao Pay Insurance (first from the right), is taking a commemorative photo with the employees who won first place at Kakao Pay Insurance's first in-house hackathon, "Surethon." Kakao Pay Insurance

The ideas proposed at the event ranged widely, from improving the insurance user experience to streamlining internal operations. Notable ideas included simplifying claims review and assessment processes, enhancing user journey (UX), and improving service quality. Many of these proposals were immediately applicable to actual work, drawing significant attention.

AI was also actively used for the preliminary evaluation. Kakao Pay Insurance utilized its own AI evaluation tool to assess each proposal based on problem definition, originality, business impact and value demonstration, as well as the technical depth and completeness of the source code. Scores were calculated by combining AI evaluation with peer review, allowing participants’ ideas to be verified more objectively and from multiple perspectives. In the final round, the evaluation focused on the uniqueness of the idea, the degree of AI utilization, and the completeness of implementation, with the top three teams ultimately selected. The outstanding ideas identified through this process will be further developed as actual projects for service enhancement, new service review, and internal work process optimization.

Through Surethon, Kakao Pay Insurance aims to spread an AI-driven collaborative culture across the company and to increase the use of AI in all aspects of work. The company plans to continue expanding employee-driven experimental programs to generate innovation closely linked to practical work outcomes.

Younggeun Jang, CEO of Kakao Pay Insurance, stated, “Surethon was a meaningful opportunity for our employees to participate directly, experiment with new insurance experiences, and validate their potential. Moving forward, we will continue to drive innovation based on digital technology and user perspectives, and strive to create insurance services that anyone can easily use.”

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