'Beyond Apps, Focusing on the Essence'
Born from Unique Insight
Super Agent, an Opportunity to Become a Global Unicorn
"The CEO only needs to review reports and approve important decisions." Ok Hyungseok, CEO of Hyeum, stated this during an interview with Asia Economy at the company's headquarters in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on August 21. He said, "Like Alfred, Batman's butler, my dream is to enable entrepreneurs to focus solely on the essence of their work through the AI agent Alfred."
The era of 'butler-type AI' that manages a company's finances and time has become a reality. Hyeum's tax and finance-specialized AI agent 'Alfred' is a B2B SaaS (business-to-business software as a service) that integrates features such as 24/7 chatbot consultations, automation of tax and accounting tasks, and document issuance. When users enter a question into the chatbot, the AI understands the context and immediately responds based on its internal database, quickly handling the requested work.
Earlier this month, Hyeum carried out a rebranding of Alfred and upgraded its capabilities. The newly added dashboard provides a comprehensive view of key financial indicators such as profit and loss, sales, and labor costs, while the 'Alfred Report' summarizes card sales, expense analysis, and cash flow. This rebranding is the first step in evolving Alfred into a 'super agent' that expands beyond tax and finance to cover all aspects of management, including talent acquisition, procurement, loans, and even daily operations.
'Beyond Apps, Focusing on the Essence'... Born from Unique Insight
"Not every service needs to be application-based." The development of Alfred began with this philosophy from CEO Ok. While working at LG Electronics, he analyzed the low usage rate of smart TV apps and realized the need for 'digitalization that fits the essence of the service.' After encountering a tax service app, he determined that "tax work is better suited to a model where results are reported like a secretary, rather than handled directly," which led to the founding of Hyeum in 2017.
Hyeum first launched 'Hyeum Report,' the predecessor to the Alfred Report. Based on KakaoTalk, this service allowed tax office staff to provide real-time consultations and reports, but the structure, which relied on human processing, limited its scalability. With the advancement of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, automated consultations became possible, and Hyeum began full-scale development of its tax and finance-specialized AI agent.
Hyeum approached the AI agent market by categorizing it into three types: 'execution-type,' which simply carries out user requests; 'companion-type,' which focuses on emotional interaction through AI characters; and 'butler-type,' which proactively handles necessary work for users. Hyeum focused on developing the butler-type AI. By combining RPA (robotic process automation) with large language models (LLMs) and advancing its 'Large Action Model (LAM),' the result was the AI agent Alfred.
Thanks to this technological prowess, Hyeum was selected as a government-designated AI super-gap innovation company, received an A+ rating in technology guarantee evaluations, and successfully secured Series B investment. CEO Ok said, "Traditional accounting outsourcing typically costs around 700,000 KRW per month," adding, "Hyeum has reduced this to below 100,000 KRW, and in the near future, we will develop the service to perform the role of a virtual Chief Financial Officer (CFO)."
Super Agent, an Opportunity to Become a Global Unicorn
CEO Ok stated, "Ultimately, it is a competition to see who occupies the role of the personal assistant next to the CEO-the personal agent." He predicted that as AI agents like Alfred gain access to all of a company's transaction information, a time will come when CEOs consult with AI agents before people in the core decision-making process. He expects this change to be a turning point that will dramatically expand the agent market.
He compared this trend to the competition for dominance between search engines and super apps, saying, "In the end, the center of the market will shift to 'super agents.'" He further asserted, "When a time comes when users no longer need to open apps and everything is handled automatically through commands, a market far more disruptive than existing super apps will emerge." He especially noted that Hyeum's collaboration as an AI agent development partner for Microsoft's business platform 'Teams' will be a crucial opportunity to enhance overseas expansion and service scalability.
Hyeum has set 2027 as the 'first year of the super agent.' CEO Ok said, "We will create an AI agent that handles all money-related work most efficiently," adding, "Based on this, we will transform into a super agent and leap forward as the next-generation unicorn." He expressed his ambition for Hyeum to become a global leader in the upcoming new economic order, the 'agent economy.'
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