Busan Port Authority (BPA) said on May 28 that it completed the development of an AI chatbot for port construction using AI functions and it will be put into operation starting June.
According to BPA, introducing AI was not easy due to the characteristics of the port as a national security facility.
The reason was that disclosing inside data to the outside could bring about a serious security incident of divulging national secrets.
As a result, BPA has built a disclosed system to remove security risks and reinforce data security regimes.
If an official asks a question in natural language, the chatbot is capable of offering legal basis and directive summaries in real time based on learned data.
BPA expects the chatbot to help the authority to make fast decisions by reducing the time it takes to review a huge amount of data, such as laws, in-house regulations and operation systems.
The AI chatbot system will be provided to technology executives and staffers in the future and will be upgraded by reflecting views from work sites periodically.
BPA President Song Sang-keun said, “Introducing the AI chatbot for administrative responsibilities for port construction is a turning port of digital administration for solving two tasks — security and innovation.”
Meanwhile, in February, BPA announced the Busan Port AX Implementation Plan, calling for building a Korean-type autonomous terminal, introducing physical AI and securing AI service (GPU Farm) and datacenters at a cost of 435 billion won.
Executives and officials of Busan Port Authority, Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Motor Group’s subsidiaries, including BPA Senior Executive Vice President Jeong Won-dong in charge of management, attend “BPA-Hyundai Motor Technology Exchange Meeting” for 2026 H1 at ZERO1NE Studio in Gangnam, Seoul, on June 11.
BPA Teams Up with Hyundai Motor to Build Smart Port
Busan Port Authority has joined forces with Hyundai Motor to promote technology cooperation for realizing smart port based on AI.
BPA held “BPA-Hyundai Motor Technology Exchange Meeting” for 2026 H1 in cooperation with Hyundai Motor, its subsidiaries and participating startups at ZERO1NE Studio in Gangnam, Seoul, on June 11.
The meeting is a follow-up measure of an MOU on technology cooperation for realizing smart ports based on AI and expanding the startup ecosystem both sides struck last October and a technology seminar that took place last November.
The event was attended by BPA Senior Executive Vice President Chung Won-dong, in charge of management, and Digital AI Department officials, as well as Vice President Noh Kyu-seung of the Future Strategy Headquarters at Hyundai Motor, and officials of Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Rotem, Hyundai AutoEver, Hyundai Wia, Hyundai KEFICO, Innocean and other group subsidiaries.
Splintered startups, such as WhereB, HchargeLab, Poen, Wondermove and AutoL also participated and discussed ways of promoting cooperation.
During the meeting, BPA explained the current status of implementing port digital transformation and AI transformation and future plans and shared major business plans on the port logistics integration platform “Chain Portal,” developed on its own.
The Chain Portal is the nation’s first platform connecting in real-time sea, port and land data based on blockchain.
It offers services, such as “Vehicle Booking System,” “Transshipment Shuttle System,” “e-Slip” and AI transshipment monitoring system “Port-i.”
Both sides sounded out a possibility of promoting cooperation in a variety of areas, such as AI, self-driving, robotics and eco-friendly energy technologies.
In particular, Hyundai Motor had a in-depth discussion on ways of applying charging and energy ecosystem to the port industry.
The two institutions plan to build a stage-by-stage cooperation regime encompassing concept verification, pilot test, joint research, verification project and commercialized model exploration and flesh out at cooperative tasks through regularizing of exchange meetings.
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