[Exclusive] Amorepacific Chairman Seokyung Bae to Meet Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Privately

First Meeting in the Beauty Industry... Discussing AI and K-Beauty Synergy
Chairman Seokyung Bae's Genuine Commitment to AI, Shown by Direct CES Attendance
Active Utilization for Manufacturing, Recommendations, and Business Efficiency

Seokyung Bae, Chairman and CEO of Amorepacific Group. Provided by Amorepacific Group

Seokyung Bae, Chairman of Amorepacific Group, is set to meet Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (MS) in the United States. They will discuss new services integrating MS's artificial intelligence (AI) and explore synergy opportunities between the AI industry and the K-beauty industry.

According to industry sources on the 10th, Chairman Seokyung Bae plans to have a private meeting with CEO Nadella on the 25th at an undisclosed location in Seoul. CEO Nadella is scheduled to meet key leaders from telecommunications, finance, and manufacturing sectors, including KT CEO Kim Young-seop, at the 'AI Tour' event held on the 26th at the aT Center in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Prior to this, a meeting with Chairman Seokyung Bae was arranged the day before the event. Since taking the helm of MS in 2014, CEO Nadella visited Korea in 2022 and met with IT industry figures such as former SK Square CEO Park Jung-ho and NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin, but this will be his first meeting with a K-beauty company leader.

Chairman Seokyung Bae plans to discuss applying MS's AI to Amorepacific with CEO Nadella. The discussion is expected to focus on introducing MS's Azure OpenAI (AOAI), centered around the theme of the AI Tour event, "The Era of AI Agents." AOAI is a service built on MS's cloud platform 'Azure' that enables the use of OpenAI's generative AI 'GPT.' It is reported that Amorepacific intends to utilize AOAI with its secured customer data to design more precise personalized services. MS is also envisioning a significant introduction of AI into the beauty industry centered on Amorepacific. They plan to highlight innovative cases of AI adoption in K-beauty and aggressively promote them worldwide.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Direct CES Attendance... Chairman Seokyung Bae's Genuine Commitment to AI

Chairman Seokyung Bae has long been interested in AI technology. Amorepacific's participation in the world's largest electronics and IT exhibition, CES, since 2020?an unusual move in the beauty industry?reflects this interest. The company has showcased AI-based skin diagnosis and care technologies, winning innovation awards for six consecutive years. Notably, this year marked Chairman Seokyung Bae's first attendance at CES. At the event, he emphasized the need to introduce innovative technologies and products combining AI technology in the beauty market.

On January 7th (local time), at CES 2025 held in Las Vegas, USA, Seokyung Bae, Chairman of Amorepacific Group (third from the left), is touring the site with executives including Jongman Park, Head of Amorepacific Digital Strategy Unit (second from the left). Provided by Amorepacific Group.

This approach is ultimately interpreted as an intention to dominate the personalized cosmetics market by accurately diagnosing and recommending individual skin characteristics through AI-integrated devices. With growing demand for hyper-personalized services, personalized cosmetics are seen as a new growth engine. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the global personalized cosmetics market grew from $753 million (approximately 1.0899 trillion KRW) in 2020 to $29.75 billion last year. The industry expects the market to grow to $4 billion this year, a 38% increase compared to the previous year.

Active Use of AI from Manufacturing to Recommendations

Amorepacific is promoting the commercialization of AI technology through its beauty device brand 'Makeon.' The new product launched this month, 'Skin Light Therapy 3S,' measures the current skin condition in just 3 seconds and provides the necessary care. AI is also being integrated into cosmetics manufacturing. In November last year, Amorepacific's beauty brand Hera introduced the 'Sensual Lip Custom Match' service at Amore Seongsu. AI analyzes individual skin types among 142 colors and 5 scents to recommend and create customized lip products in real time.

AI is also expected to be actively used to improve internal business efficiency. AI will reduce lead times from product development to launch and predict demand and logistics in the distribution sector. An Amorepacific official said, "Although personalized cosmetics have not yet reached a stage of generating significant results, we are investing to secure growth engines," adding, "We will also bring changes in the way employees work by utilizing AI."