At Yonsei University Medical Center, a quiet but powerful digital revolution is underway. Over the course of January 2026, doctors, nurses, and administrative staff rolled up their sleeves—not just to care for patients or manage paperwork, but to design and build artificial intelligence (AI) tools tailored to the real-world challenges they face every day. The 2026 Yonsei Medical Center AI Challenge, hosted by the Digital Health Office and co-organized by the Digital Health Institute, AI Innovation Institute, and the Medical School’s Undergraduate Convergence Scientist Training Project, has emerged as a beacon for practical digital transformation in healthcare, according to reports from both Medical News Daily and APSK News.
Unlike typical tech competitions that focus on blue-sky ideas, this challenge demanded boots-on-the-ground innovation. Staff were not just asked to imagine solutions—they were empowered to build AI agents that could be immediately deployed to streamline hospital workflows. The event was more than a contest; it was a month-long experiment in collaborative problem-solving, with a strong emphasis on mentorship and real-world application.
From the outset, the challenge was ambitious. Nineteen teams, comprising a total of 55 staff members, advanced to the finals. The diversity of participants—from purchasing clerks to emergency nurses—was remarkable. The Digital Health Office didn’t just host the event; they provided continuous AI mentoring, reviewing each team’s ideas for technical feasibility and real-world impact. As Medical News Daily noted, “the Digital Health Office provided AI mentoring, reviewing ideas for commercialization potential and optimizing AI technology.” This hands-on guidance ensured that no idea languished in the realm of theory.
The competition’s judging criteria were clear and practical: Did the AI solution fit the team’s chosen problem? Did it offer a real fix? Was it creative? And, perhaps most importantly, could it be used directly in the hospital’s medical or administrative environment?
When the dust settled, eleven teams walked away with awards, but the grand prize—3 million KRW—went to the 'Purchase RE:Form' team from the purchasing department. Their project? An AI-powered Q&A chatbot designed to tackle more than 2,000 annual purchase requests across the medical center. This chatbot automates repetitive inquiries, slashing the need for constant back-and-forth and delivering quick, accurate responses. The goal, as APSK News described, was “to reduce inquiry contacts and provide fast responses, improving work efficiency.”
But the innovation didn’t stop there. The excellence award, carrying a prize of 1 million KRW, was shared by two standout teams. The SENAVI-EP team from the Cardiovascular Examination Department built an AI assistant to help nurses prepare for arrhythmia procedures—a critical step for patient safety and procedural accuracy. Their solution was lauded for its immediate applicability and the potential to raise the bar on procedural standards.
Meanwhile, the SNAP team from the emergency nursing unit took home the innovation award (500,000 KRW) for a bold idea: a ‘non-answering AI.’ Instead of simply spitting out information, their AI encourages nurses to engage in self-directed learning, supporting them as they write reports and hone their analytical skills. According to Medical News Daily, “the SNAP team… created a learning AI that encourages nurses’ self-directed learning without giving direct answers, supporting report writing and analytical skills.” This approach marks a shift from AI as a crutch to AI as a catalyst for professional growth.
Other notable winners included the Severance Sync team from the Human Resources Management Office, who built an AI system to screen staff inquiries and HR regulations in real time. Their solution not only answers routine questions but also escalates more complex issues to the right experts, reducing simple workload and boosting overall efficiency. The AI-Fi team from Finance and Accounting was recognized for automating responses to basic queries—a digital secretary for the department, if you will.
There was also the Smart on-call team, made up of cardiovascular nurses, who developed an AI-based system to streamline on-call contact during emergencies. By minimizing delays and errors in urgent communications, they hope to make a real difference when every second counts. Meanwhile, the Shift Structure Team from the Rehabilitation Hospital nursing staff proposed an AI system for automatic nurse shift scheduling, promising to reduce administrative headaches and optimize staffing.
Throughout the challenge, the Digital Health Office played an active role, not only offering technical support but also evaluating the commercialization potential of each proposal. This was no mere academic exercise—the goal was to see these AI tools move from prototype to practice. As Im Jun-seok, head of the Digital Health Office, put it on February 24, 2026, “This AI challenge confirmed the potential for staff not usually close to AI to create and use AI to resolve daily work inefficiencies, with plans to continue supporting commercialization.”
Im’s comments, reported by both Medical News Daily and APSK News, underscore a larger shift in hospital culture. “This AI challenge showed that staff not usually close to AI could create and use AI to solve daily work discomforts and increase efficiency,” he said, adding, “We plan to support commercialization of the AI development proposals.” The sentiment was echoed in the statement, “Through field-centered digital innovation, we will simultaneously improve the quality of medical services and work efficiency.”
What sets this event apart is how it redefines the role of hospital staff in digital transformation. Traditionally, AI in healthcare has been the domain of outside experts or IT departments. Here, the very people who know the hospital’s pain points best—its doctors, nurses, and administrators—became the architects of their own solutions. By moving staff from ‘users’ to ‘developers,’ Yonsei Medical Center is not just digitizing its workflow; it’s democratizing innovation.
The success of the 2026 AI Challenge hints at a broader trend. As hospitals worldwide grapple with rising workloads and the complexity of modern care, the Yonsei model offers a blueprint for sustainable, ground-up digital change. The event’s focus on practical, immediately deployable AI agents, coupled with robust mentorship and a clear path to commercialization, could inspire similar initiatives well beyond Korea’s borders.
For now, the hospital’s Digital Health Office continues to support the winning teams, shepherding their AI solutions toward full-scale implementation. If these projects succeed, the impact will be felt not just in smoother workflows or faster responses, but in a workplace where every staff member feels empowered to innovate. That’s a future worth watching.