"If it feels burdensome for a request to be uploaded to the internal system the moment it is saved, shall we add a temporary save function?"

On the first day of the final round of SK Broadband’s internal artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon, the "F5 Hackathon," held on the 21st at the company's Anseong Human Resources Development Institute in Gyeonggi Province, tables were piled high with nutritional supplements, energy drinks, and toothbrushes to prepare for a grueling overnight coding session running from 12:30 PM until 3:00 PM the following day. The finalists represented 10 teams that successfully pierced a high competition rate of nearly 6 to 1.

58 Teams Participated… 83% Non-Developers

SK Broadband announced on the 27th that it held the internal AI hackathon "F5 Hackathon" under the theme "Changing SKB with AI" from the 21st to the 26th. The name carries the meaning of refreshing familiar work practices with AI, much like the "F5" (refresh) key on a keyboard.

A total of 58 teams comprising 143 employees submitted proposal drafts for this competition. Among them, non-development department members accounted for a striking 83%. The company provided no-code and vibe-coding tools, generative AI access passes, and training, enabling employees without prior development experience to directly implement their ideas into AI services.

At the venue, diverse combinations of participants transcending rank and generation drew considerable attention. The "Tacit Knowledge Expedition" team brought together non-developer senior and junior colleagues whose combined tenure spans 56 years—ranging from a 20-something junior employee in their first year to a senior employee in their 50s. They created "B2B Palantir," a tool that uses AI to analyze scattered customer data previously held individually by sales representatives to detect churn signals and sales opportunities.

Refreshing Work Practices Beyond Rank and Generation

The "One Mind, One Body" team, an in-house couple who participated after leaving their daughter in the care of their grandparents, developed an AI simulator that pre-verifies product and campaign phrases from the perspectives of roughly 20 external stakeholders, including customers, regulatory agencies, and YouTubers. Lee Hong-yeon, a manager from the PR team, shared, "Previously, my wife and I rarely talked about work, but thanks to vibe coding learned at the company, we now share many more conversations, such as developing an 'English Quiz Princess Dress-up' game exclusively for our daughter."

Turning Ideas into Real Services

In the final round, "UX Research Lab" by the "Just One Survey" team—which pre-verifies customer responses prior to service reorganizations by utilizing B tv virtual customers (AI personas)—won the grand prize. Kim Ga-hee, a manager from the "Just One Survey" team consisting of planning/design practitioners and an AI developer, remarked, "Through this collaboration, I felt the strengths of non-developer colleagues who build solid foundations right from the planning stage."

Min Bu-shik, head of SK Broadband's Corporate Culture Center, stated, "We will steadily support employee-driven AI innovations so that ideas starting from the field lead to achievements that actually transform our work."

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