[AI Revolution](82) 'Persona AI' Caught Microsoft's Eye, Chatbot Developed in 1 Month Instead of 6

Unrivaled AICC Technology... Adopted by 1,400 Locations
IPO Next Year and Expansion into Global Markets

Last July, Microsoft signed a business agreement with a domestic startup, not a large corporation. Hyosung Ventures and SK Telecom also invested in this company. It is PersonaAI. With its unique AI Contact Center (AICC) technology, it is gaining attention not only in Korea but also overseas.

PersonaAI was founded in 2017 by CEO Yoo Seung-jae, a former IT planner. CEO Yoo happened to learn that a famous overseas artificial intelligence (AI) company was learning Korean, and he was convinced that Korean AI could be better developed by Korean companies. He also judged that there was market potential since there is no dominant country yet in the language AI sector, so he formed a team and began developing an AI engine in 2015.

Yoo Seung-jae, CEO of Persona AI Photo by Persona AI

CEO Yoo cites data generation technology as PersonaAI’s strength. He explained, "All AI requires data. We are the only company in Korea researching and securing natural language generation (NLG) technology that can create the data needed for AI." This technology generates natural language data based on collected external data. It can achieve optimal performance even with limited data. CEO Yoo added, "For example, if asked to create a chatbot, competitors might take six months, but PersonaAI can do it in one month. PersonaAI products have more trained data."

The company’s proprietary conversation engine also performs excellently. According to verification results from the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS) and the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), it boasts an outstanding Korean language recognition rate of 100%. Accuracy has been improved through stopword removal, spelling and grammar correction, and dialect recognition. The response speed is also only 57% compared to global companies, making it very fast.

The main business model is the so-called AI call center, AICC. Customers can receive consultations 24/7 through chatbots or callbots without waiting for a human agent. PersonaAI has partnered with demanding financial institutions such as KB Financial Group and Hanwha General Insurance. It is also collaborating with SKT and Hyosung in the AICC business. Its flagship product, the cloud-based AICC 'BotTox,' is the industry’s number one solution adopted by about 1,400 companies. Market research firm Allied Market Research forecasts that the domestic AICC market will grow at an average annual rate of 23.7%, reaching approximately 454.6 billion KRW by 2030.

In April, PersonaAI introduced 'KGPT,' a Korean-style generative AI combined with ChatGPT. It is characterized by solving ChatGPT’s issues of security, incorrect answers, and bias. Internal security documents are managed separately, allowing public institutions and companies to use it without concerns about confidential information leaks. It also offers an 'AI kiosk' that recognizes users’ age, emotions, and gender.

All of PersonaAI’s services share the commonality of being closely connected to general users. CEO Yoo said, "There are many AI companies, but most focus on technology. While technology is important, fundamentally, AI services that people can use well must be created." He added, "AI can only develop if many people use it. We have a mission to create appropriate AI technology."

Based on these achievements, PersonaAI is planning an initial public offering (IPO). It is proceeding with the process targeting the second half of next year or early 2025. It also plans to accelerate global expansion to Japan, the United States, and other markets. CEO Yoo said, "This year, sales are expected to be two to three times higher than last year," and added, "Next year, we aim to double this year’s sales and focus on the IPO."