Korea’s fashion, beauty industries integrate AI to offer new customer experience

[Courtesy of Korea Institute of Design Promotion]

STUDIO LAB, a South Korean artificial intelligence (AI) startup, is making strides in the world of AI-based e-commerce content creation with Seller Canvas solution.

The company, founded in 2021 through a Samsung Electronics in-house venture project, specializes in developing AI for fashion and e-commerce.

Seller Canvas is a cutting-edge service that allows fashion product sellers to upload product photos and answer simple queries. In return, AI automatically designs and creates detailed product pages.

This innovative approach is designed to streamline and simplify the content creation process for online sellers.

The company conducted a demo project last year through Korea Institute of Design Promotion’s Styletech Growth Support Program.

STUDIO LAB CEO Kang Sung-hoon highlighted the global potential of the company’s AI technology, saying that Deep Scan, an AI service that classifies waste clothing materials like cotton, polyester, and nylon, has garnered significant interest in eco-conscious European markets.

UUUUU, another Korean startup in the fashion and beauty sector, made a breakthrough when it secured a place in the U.S. Costco Wholesale, a warehouse-style discount store, in May. The company uses patented new material technology to create gel nail products that bake rather than apply.

The company collaborates with world-renowned tattoo artists and nail artists to create designs, using AI image training technology to produce a variety of designs in less than an hour.

UUUUU CEO Jenny Kim expressed the company’s growth and expansion plans, saying that “we were able to refine our business model and technology through the Styletech Growth Support Program by the Korea Institute of Design Promotion.”

“This year, we established a U.S. subsidiary and plan to expand our distribution channels to major countries, including Singapore, Australia, France, the UK, India, and Japan,” she said.

The emergence of so-called styletech is reshaping the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle sectors by integrating new technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain, robotics, and advanced materials.

Styletech refers to the creation of products and services that generate new customer experiences by combining information technology with lifestyle products. In Korea, the style industry is experiencing a surge in growth as traditional consumer goods integrate with IT, content, advanced materials, and design, resulting in high-value markets.

To support and accelerate the growth of promising styletech companies, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, in partnership with the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, launched the “Styletech Promising Enterprise Growth Support Program” in 2019.

This program offers various forms of support, including collaboration with large and medium-sized enterprises, professional designer assistance, and domestic and international investment attraction, to enable styletech enterprises to grow alongside established players.

According to the Korea Institute of Design Promotion, the selected companies from 2019 to 2022 reported revenue growth from 17.5 billion won ($13 million) in 2018 to over 211.4 billion won in 2022.

Of the companies selected last year, eight have successfully secured investments totaling 4.2 billion won. The cumulative investment for the program reached 111 billion won by the end of the year.