LGU+ Targets 500 Billion KRW Market with Three Major AICC Services

LG Uplus announced on the 1st that it will fully launch its B2B AI business based on the AI Contact Center (AICC) and AI solutions for small business owners. The company plans to focus its capabilities on three main services: ’U+ AICC On-Premise’, ’U+ AICC Cloud’, and ’Urigage AI’, targeting the B2B market.

The AICC market has been rapidly growing recently. Allied Market Research forecasted that the domestic AICC market will steadily grow at an annual rate of over 20%, reaching approximately 500 billion KRW by 2030. Despite its large market potential, there is no clear leading player in the AICC sector yet. Its application scope is vast, ranging from public institutions, finance, and insurance companies to distribution, hospitals, and travel, making it a so-called ‘golden egg’ market.

In particular, mobile carriers can quickly establish themselves in the market based on their ICT infrastructure and wired and wireless communication technologies. LG Uplus plans to concentrate its AI capabilities on AICC and enter full-scale competition.

In fact, LG Uplus has already built the ‘One-LG AICC’ in collaboration with LG AI Research and LG CNS, actively utilizing LG Group’s AI capabilities. While cooperating with the super-large AI ‘Exaone 2.0’ developed by LG AI Research to advance AICC, the company also plans to introduce its self-developed ‘ixi-GEN’ next year.

Ixi-GEN is a large language model (LLM) trained on LG Uplus’s communication and platform data, intended to serve as the core of its future B2B AI business. LG Uplus expects that once its own LLM is established, its competitiveness in AICC will be further strengthened.

Establishing the On-Premise AICC Market... Launching Subscription-Based AICC

LG Uplus introduced U+ AICC On-Premise in March 2021. This is a so-called on-premise AICC that combines multiple AI solutions, allowing companies to design customer centers in the form they desire. Its main customers are large enterprises with high dependency on customer centers and strong efficiency needs, such as financial and insurance companies. The service achieved about 55 billion KRW in order revenue within approximately two years after launch, securing orders consecutively from leading companies in finance and manufacturing. The company succeeded in market establishment by emphasizing reasonable costs, advanced AI technology based on Exaone, and accuracy management through automated AI learning.

Building on the success of U+ AICC On-Premise and confirming market demand, LG Uplus launched the subscription-based service U+ AICC Cloud last September. This service targets mid-sized groups and small businesses that find the initial setup cost burdensome and want to apply it immediately to their customer centers for quick use. Customers can use the call center infrastructure they want without separate construction, linked with LG Uplus’s AI solutions, in an affordable monthly subscription format.

U+ AICC Cloud offers three main functions. First, the ‘AI Callbot Service’, where AI responds to customer inquiries according to consultation scenarios instead of human agents. It can handle not only simple responses but also unexpected questions such as changing delivery addresses or replacing payment cards. Second, the ‘AI Conversation Log Service’, which automatically converts conversations between agents and customers into text. When previous consultation information is needed, users can search only the necessary parts by keywords without listening to past consultation histories one by one. Third, the ‘AI Consultation Support Service’, which converts conversation content into text in real time during consultations, extracts keywords via AI, and recommends optimal consultation scripts, thereby improving work productivity.

U+ AICC Cloud is designed with a flexible structure that can be linked with various call infrastructures and core systems required by customers. Additionally, since the U+ AI platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), it has the advantage of easy integration with various solutions available on AWS. Depending on the company type, it can also be provided in a hybrid form combining on-premise and subscription models. The service has secured numerous customers within about a month of its launch.

Small Business AICC ‘Urigage AI’, Expanding Store DX Solutions

LG Uplus targets niche markets with ‘Urigage AI’, an AI solution for small business owners. While U+ AICC On-Premise and U+ AICC Cloud are complete AICC solutions for large and medium-sized enterprises, Urigage AI is a service for small-scale and micro-businesses that have AI needs but are limited in size.

In October, LG Uplus launched the Urigage AI flat-rate plan priced at 9,900 KRW per month, which includes a telephone terminal, basic AI response, and customer memo functions. This solution helps store owners not miss calls during busy times and focus on in-store tasks. The ‘Urigage Reservation Service’, which handles reservation confirmations, changes, and reminder notification messages, and the ‘Urigage Waiting Service’, where AI manages on-site waiting registration and waiting status, are scheduled for release in March next year.

LG Uplus plans to lead small business owners by providing integrated store-wide DX solutions based on AI through the ‘Urigage Package’ app. With just one app, users can efficiently manage everything from reservations to orders, payments, and store promotions with AI assistance. By integrating communication data generated at each stage with public data (weather, public transportation, etc.), financial MyData (card details, electronic financial records, etc.), and DX data, the company aims to strengthen product competitiveness by offering customer-tailored services that increase store sales and revisit rates.

LG Uplus aims to lead the market with its ‘AI 3 Major Services’ strategy: increasing market share in the large and medium-sized enterprise AICC market and targeting the small business market with Urigage AI.

Park Sung-yul, head of LG Uplus’s Enterprise Infrastructure Business Group, said, “LG Uplus holds an advantage in the customer center communication service market through extensive experience in building and operating numerous call center infrastructure solutions,” adding, “Based on long-established competitiveness and fully utilizing the group’s AI capabilities, we will lead the market as a B2B AI platform.”