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[Interview] Park Jong Gil, Chairman of the Korea Workers' Welfare: "Promoting the Introduction of Smart Childcare to Daycare Centers Nationalwide" 

The BabyTimes Newspaper, Lim Ji Young | 2025.10.14

October 14, 2025 — The Korea Worker's Welfare Corporation is actively promoting innovation in public childcare to ensure employment stability for workers and alleviate the burden of children. 

Park Jong-gil, Chairman of the Korea Workers' Welfare Corporation

The Korea Worker's Welfare Corporation has sought to innovate childcare services that stimulate the interest of infants and toddlers and enhance the satisfaction of infants, toddlers, and parents, particularly through the establishment of a 'smart childcare environment' by introducing advanced systems such as AI technology to public workplace childcare centers.

In addition, we are actively building a smart childcare environment by introducing AR classrooms in 2023, AI food scanners in 2024, and AI behavior analysis systems in 2025 into our childcare programs. Starting with seven daycare centers including Cheonan Daycare Center in 2023, AR classrooms have been installed in 31 daycare centers nationwide by July of this year.

The AR Classroom is a program that can promote emotional stability and enhance safety awareness in infants and toddlers by allowing them to frequently experience various virtual reality activities, such as play and safety activities, which are difficult to experience in real life.

The Corporation expects to expand this program to all daycare centers nationwide, including workplace daycare centers, by verifying the effectiveness of 'establishing a smart childcare environment,' such as AI classrooms.

Baby Times met with Park Jong-gil, Chairman of the Corporation, who operates 37 public workplace daycare centers nationwide as a leading work-family balance model for employees of small and medium-sized enterprises, and is at the forefront of future public childcare innovation by establishing a 'smart childcare environment' through the introduction of advanced systems such as AR classrooms utilizing AI technology. We listened to his philosophy and values regarding daycare center operations and practical examples of smart classroom application in the field.

The following is a Q&A with Chairman Park Jong-gil.

Q. What are the plans for public childcare innovation to ensure employment stability for workers and alleviate the burden of childcare?

A. The Korea Workers' Welfare Service is carrying out two public childcare support programs to reduce childcare costs and provide high-quality childcare services for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises and low-wage/micro workplaces.

One organization has established and directly operates 37 daycare centers nationwide, starting with Changwon Daycare Center in 1996 and extending to Incheon Songdo Daycare Center in 2022, and another organization operates three workplace childcare support centers nationwide to carry out projects for establishing workplace daycare centers and supporting personnel and operating costs.

As a public childcare institution, the Gongdan Daycare Center pursues the hope of a community living in harmony with the local area rather than focusing on outward growth. It fulfills its social role as a public childcare institution by providing specialized, integrated childcare in multicultural areas, extended evening care for workers with irregular working hours, and integrated and specialized care for the disabled to accommodate the socially vulnerable.

Furthermore, starting in 2023, the Corporation established "Building a Smart Childcare Environment" as a core future strategy to move away from the existing standardized childcare system and provide personalized services for each child, and is promoting the introduction of advanced childcare systems, including AI technology. We sequentially introduced AR classrooms in 2023, AI food scanners in 2024, and AI behavior analysis systems in 2025, and plan to expand into safety areas, such as child abuse prevention, in the future.

Infants and toddlers engaging in various virtual experiences using augmented reality (AR) programs in an AR classroom established by the Korea Workers' Welfare Service at a daycare center. (Photo courtesy of the Korea Workers' Welfare Service)Q. Could you elaborate on the smart childcare environment establishment program?
A. The 'AR Classroom,' first introduced in 2023, is an educational program that utilizes augmented reality to provide various virtual experiences, such as safety and play. It offers safety prevention education and diverse activities freely, free from weather conditions like rain or time and spatial constraints.

The 'AI Food Scanner,' introduced in 2024, is a program that photographs children's food trays before and after meals, analyzes intake and nutritional content, and provides a healthcare report to parents, enabling continuous and effective guidance on eating habits at daycare centers and at home.

The 'AI Behavior Analysis System' introduced this year analyzes the daily routines of children in childcare in three dimensions through an AI-based observation system. By providing objective data such as activity levels, peer relationships, and play preferences, it enables the early identification of individual developmental characteristics, including developmental delays and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). We expect that replacing the daily childcare logs written by teachers with behavior analysis reports will lead to a revolutionary reduction in the workload of childcare teachers.

Q. Have you implemented the smart childcare environment program in all 37 public workplace daycare centers operated by the Corporation?

A. It has not been implemented in all 37 daycare centers. The Corporation's smart childcare environment program was developed based on a demand survey, respecting the specific characteristics and free will of each daycare center; however, installation could not be performed in some daycare centers due to spatial characteristics, such as a lack of space.

As of the end of September this year, 'AR Classrooms' have been installed in 31 daycare centers, and 'AI Food Scanners' in 28 daycare centers. The 'AI Behavior Analysis System,' introduced for the first time this year, is currently being piloted in two daycare centers, and we plan to expand it further after verifying its effectiveness.

Director Lee Mi-kyung of Gomdallae Daycare Center and enrolled children, providing meals through the AI food scanner program established by the Korea Workers' Welfare Service. (Photo provided by Korea Workers' Welfare Service Gomdallae Daycare Center)

Q. What is the reaction from daycare centers that have implemented the smart childcare environment program?

A. It is true that there were concerns that the introduction of new childcare programs might increase the workload of childcare teachers, and that complaints might rise if parents discovered their children were not playing properly or eating normally due to the public disclosure of daily activities within the daycare center, such as children's meals and behavior.

However, during the operation of the new program, childcare effects aligned with the program's purpose are emerging, and overall satisfaction is high due to the natural adaptation of childcare teachers and children to the program, as well as the resolution of parents' questions regarding their children while they are at the daycare center.

Q. It seems that support for teachers' professional development is necessary for the effective operation of the program.

A. That is correct. The developer is providing continuous training on the program, and we are striving to enhance teachers' professionalism and ensure the program's effectiveness through feedback regarding technical errors, such as malfunctions.

Q. If the directors, teachers, and parents of the daycare centers operated by the Corporation are satisfied, wouldn't it be good to expand this program to daycare centers nationwide?

A. We are planning to promote the excellent childcare programs, including the smart childcare system introduced by the Corporation Daycare Center, to all daycare centers nationwide, including workplace daycare centers.

* Link article: https://www.babytimes.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=71233