[AI Revolution](118) Afreeca: "Customized AI for Enterprises is Crucial... Will Determine Competitiveness"

Cloud Management and AI Implementation Solutions
Clients Include Hyundai Glovis, GIST, National Police Agency, etc.
"Role in Enabling AI Capabilities and Utilization"

"If you want to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) technology but hesitate because you don't know how or worry about internal information leaking outside, Apeurika can be a good partner."

Jucheol Hwi, Head of Artificial Intelligence Research at Afreeca, is being interviewed by Asia Economy at Afreeca's affiliated research institute in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

Apeurika is a solution company equipped with both AI development and cloud management capabilities. Its representative services include ‘Cheetah,’ a platform that helps companies build and utilize AI technology using internal data, and ‘Serengeti,’ which allows easy cloud management. The company has experience in building AI solutions and consulting for Hyundai Glovis, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), the National Police Agency, and the Fair Trade Commission.

Joo Cheol-hwi, head of the AI Research Institute who joined Apeurika in 2020, recently said in an interview with Asia Economy, "In the future, companies and institutions will create their own AI chatbots or AI assistants and enhance competitiveness by having employees use them." He predicted the future growth potential of AI technology during his 26 years at IBM Korea and has also participated in government projects supporting AI-based new drug development.

Recently, Apeurika launched a service called ‘Gazelle,’ a customized sLLM (small large language model) construction solution tailored for each company. It focuses on ensuring that customer information does not flow into large big-tech servers like OpenAI’s, while processing data quickly and securely, improving answer accuracy, and minimizing hallucination phenomena through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology. To this end, they have continuously conducted research activities such as fine-tuning various AI models released as open source.

Joo said, "Currently, the AI market is in an exploratory phase, but soon ‘private sLLM’ will gain attention," adding, "We will play a role in lowering the entry barriers so that domestic companies can acquire AI capabilities as soon as possible." He also believes that raising national competitiveness depends on how well AI is utilized beyond just companies.

Joo expressed his ambition, saying, "Apeurika’s strength lies in having three solutions?Serengeti, Cheetah, and Gazelle?that can support AI construction from start to finish," and added, "We will help Korean companies and institutions freely utilize AI technology."