Event runs Tuesday through Friday at Suwon campus

Built on in-house generative AI platform SEMCo-Work

About 200 employees taking part; prizes total 33 million won

Samsung Electro-Mechanics holds its first in-house hackathon at its Suwon campus from Tuesday through Friday. [Samsung Electro-Mechanics]
Samsung Electro-Mechanics holds its first in-house hackathon at its Suwon campus from Tuesday through Friday. [Samsung Electro-Mechanics]

Samsung Electro-Mechanics employees are building AI agents designed for their own day-to-day work.

The company kicked off its first in-house hackathon Tuesday at its Suwon campus, running through Friday. The competition challenges participants to develop agentic AI that cuts repetitive tasks and can be applied directly to real work.

The event was organized to spread an AI-driven work culture across the company. Teams that identify time-consuming bottlenecks in their daily routines and devise strong AI-powered solutions will share prize money totaling 33 million won ($24,700).

Participants build their agents on SEMCo-Work, Samsung Electro-Mechanics' proprietary generative AI platform, using it to tackle problems specific to their own roles.

The name SEMCo-Work blends "SEMCO," the company's English abbreviation, with "co-work," meaning collaboration. The platform runs on the company's own servers to ensure tight internal security while improving compatibility between existing in-house systems and AI, boosting overall work efficiency.

One hundred two-person teams are competing. The competition is divided into a preliminary round and a final, with five teams advancing from the preliminary stage.

Judges for the final include not only company executives but also AI transformation officers from Samsung affiliates, a measure intended to ensure impartiality. They will evaluate teams on their level of AI utilization, problem-solving approach and real-world applicability.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics will select gold, silver, bronze and merit award winners, with the final prizes to be presented at the company's founding anniversary ceremony on Nov. 2.

Agents developed during the hackathon will be made available to all employees after the competition ends, allowing anyone to try them immediately. Employee feedback will be shared with development teams and incorporated into future updates to improve each agent's quality and usability.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics President Jang Deok-hyeon said the AI era is still no more than "January 1st," adding that the company must respond proactively to the growth and innovation AI is driving.

"The experience of building an agent tailored to your own work through this hackathon will mark the beginning of 'One Person, One AI Agent,'" he added.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has been running a quarterly "Agentic AI competition" to foster a culture of active AI use in the workplace. Alongside the hackathon, the company also operates an AI ideas contest and a best-practices competition.


joze@heraldcorp.com