Seoul: The prime minister's office held a morning lecture on artificial intelligence (AI) on Friday, officials said, as tech expert-turned-Prime Minister Han Seong-sook has emphasized the use of AI in government policy to better serve the people.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee Seung-hyun, CEO and founder of AI consulting firm Alpaca Lab, and author of the book "AI National Wealth," delivered the lecture for Han and other officials. The focus was on understanding the AI era and establishing strategies for driving AI transformation across the public sector.

During the session, Lee remarked that AI has evolved beyond a simple work tool into an AI agent era where humans collaborate with AI. He stressed that the prime minister's office should develop a data road map and update infrastructure and systems to ensure the public sector leads in AI transformation.

Prime Minister Han emphasized that AI innovation has become a fundamental capability for public servants. She stated, "The prime minister's office should understand AI ahead of others and actively utilize it to establish a model for cooperation and policy coordination between government ministries and agencies. We should actively use AI as a workplace partner and come up with administrative innovations that can be felt by the people."

Having served as CEO of online portal giant Naver before joining the government last year, Han has prioritized using AI as her top agenda. She has vowed to accelerate AI transformation in the public sector, aiming to expand the use of a trial AI-driven work system to all central government agencies by the end of the year.