Evolution of ' digital green box' merges scattered information onto single screen

Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, delivers a keynote speech on On-Service AI at the developer conference held at COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on November 11. Yonhap News

NAVER is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technology across its services, including search, shopping, content, and maps. The company's strategy is to expand its original technology while providing useful AI services to cope with global big tech.

“The direction that NAVER will show in the future is to integrate AI into all services based on an inclusive AI philosophy.” said Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of NAVER, at Team Naver’s Integrated Conference “Dan24” at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on November 11. “We decided to call it On-Service AI.” “NAVER has been testing HyperCLOVA X, a super-scale AI model unveiled last year, for a year and has decided it is ready for commercialization.

NAVER plans to launch AI Briefing, a generative AI search feature that combines AI and personalized recommendation technology for integrated search, in the first half of next year. It will act as a guide that aggregates scattered information, summarizes search results, and links to various content for more details. It is not an interactive search service like Search GPT, which was introduced recently by Open AI.

For example, if you search for “reviews on ‘Culinary Class Wars’” or “19-month-old baby sleeps all the time,” it provides not only summarized results but also a wealth of sources like traditional search results to help you navigate. We are aiming to create synergy by enhancing NAVER's strong content recommendation features, such as blogs, cafes, and short service clips. For creators, NAVER will provide AI editing tools to make content creation easier and more varied.

“By incorporating AI technology into NAVER's integrated search, which is characterized by providing a variety of sources on one screen rather than limiting links to sources by providing only correct answers, we will create a virtuous cycle where more content can receive traffic.” Choi said.

NAVER Maps, the mapping service, will evolve into Street View 3D, a service with enhanced three-dimensional features. It will provide a more vivid experience by displaying actual business information on top of the street view through “Digital Twin” technology. Augmented reality (AR) navigation, indoor maps, and virtual reality (VR) indoor tours are also in the works.

In the first half of next year, we will launch the NAVER Plus Store mobile app separately from the NAVER app. It will feature AI briefings and AI shopping agents to reduce the effort of finding products. It will also recommend relevant blogs, cafes, and video content for shopping. The ad platform also uses AI technology to increase the level of automation to improve ad efficiency.

“Our competitor is big tech.” Choi said, “And I think we need to internalize AI technologies that are essential to our business.”

On the impact of Donald Trump's second term in the U.S., Choi said, “The Trump administration is expected to take a non-regulatory approach to AI and a more relaxed attitude to big tech M&A. We are closely watching what will happen if it is combined with the recent opposite domestic regulatory situation.”

On the same day, NAVER also announced that it is expanding Project Flower, which has supported the digital transformation and growth of small and medium-sized businesses and creators, into an “Impact Project” to help create a domestic AI ecosystem. It plans to create an impact fund and invest 1 trillion won over six years.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.