Starting Thursday, all public institutions can use the system to search purchase records and request quotes with AI assistance
Setting estimated prices for public procurement contracts is about to become faster and easier, with AI handling everything from purchase record searches to quote requests.
The Public Procurement Service said Thursday it is opening its AI-powered Intelligent Estimated Price Preparation Support System to all public institutions starting that day.
Estimated price preparation — the process of determining a fair benchmark price for public tenders — requires thorough price research. The agency has previously handled more than 8,000 goods contracts a year, with staff spending considerable time and effort manually reviewing past specification documents and identifying vendors to solicit quotes from.
Staff who carried out estimated price work took an active role in the system's development from planning through verification, and improvements identified through rigorous user testing were incorporated into the interface design and workflows to raise the system's overall quality.
After about five months of internal operation, the agency confirmed that the system significantly reduced repetitive data searches and verification tasks, improving work efficiency, and decided to expand access to all public institutions. Before the rollout, the agency completed a self-conducted security review and a separate security assessment by the National Intelligence Service.
The system's core functions include AI analysis of specification documents attached to tender notices on the Narajangteo public procurement portal, which extracts and summarizes key content and automatically identifies similar past projects. Staff can compare and review the results for price research without having to manually browse through multiple notices and documents.
Obtaining quotes also becomes more straightforward. The AI analyzes the bidding and contract award history of companies that participated in similar projects and recommends vendors to approach, while the system allows users to send quote-request emails directly from within the platform. The entire process — from searching purchase records to requesting quotes — can be completed in one place.
The system is accessible starting Thursday by logging into the Procurement Data Hub, and a user manual is available to help institutions get started.
Meanwhile, the Public Procurement Service is pushing to expand AI services across public procurement as part of a broader AI transformation drive. The agency is developing several AI projects: a platform to support the ordering of public software projects with AI-based accountability management, a self-bidding monitoring tool for demand agencies to block unfair practices at the source, and a platform for advance document review under the Multiple Award Schedule system to improve convenience for procurement companies.
The agency also operates an in-house AI development task force, in which staff use AI to solve on-the-job problems. The team has directly developed 14 tools, including 10 AI agents covering areas such as bid eligibility analysis and National Assembly data request management, as well as an integrated contract management program, a unit cost comparison tool by construction work type, and a duplicate-screening program for innovative product recommendations.
Next year, the agency plans to establish an information strategy plan for building an Intelligent Public Procurement Platform that will provide integrated support for procurement operations, and will pursue development of an Intelligent Strategic Stockpile System to strengthen responses to raw materials supply chain crises — extending AI services across all areas of public procurement.
In addition, the agency plans to enhance individual staff members' AI capabilities through a tailored institution-specific AI champion training program designed to reflect the characteristics of procurement work.
Kim Ji-wook, director general of the Digital Fair Procurement Bureau at the Public Procurement Service, said the opening of the system is expected to reduce the time contract officers at public institutions spend on data searches and quote collection, allowing them to focus on producing more accurate and reliable estimated prices. "We will build AI capabilities and expand service development so that employees' proposals and efforts to address on-the-ground difficulties lead to greater workplace innovation, and we will deliver high-quality procurement services that citizens and businesses can truly feel," Kim said.
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
