[Asia AI Awards] Hancom Pursues AI Technology Independence... Securing Data Sovereignty

Hancom, which has transformed into an artificial intelligence (AI) company based on digital documents, was recognized for its contributions to AI technology self-reliance and ecosystem expansion, and received the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Award at the '2025 Asia AI Awards' held at the Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul on December 18.

Hancom has commercialized document AI by combining its 35 years of accumulated digital document technology with AI. In particular, it has established itself as a key partner by consecutively winning large-scale AI transformation projects in the public sector. By demonstrating the AI training value of the next-generation document format, HWPX data, Hancom is credited with laying the foundation for Korea's data sovereignty and independent AI development.

Hancom received the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Award at the 3rd Asia AI Awards Ceremony held at Maehwa Hall, Press Center, Jung-gu, Seoul on December 18, 2025. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

Hancom is the only company in the world to secure its domestic market with office software in its native language, achieving software technology self-reliance against the monopolies of global companies. The vast collection of HWP and HWPX documents accumulated in public institutions is considered an essential element for building independent AI that is not dependent on foreign big tech technologies. The latest standard, HWPX, complies with the 'open XML' format that allows machines to easily understand and analyze data, making it optimized for AI to grasp and learn the meaning and structure of data.

Hancom is also operating services that leverage its document-based AI capabilities. The generative AI document creation tool, 'Hancom Assistant,' uses a script engine to generate professional-level documents with natural language commands alone-a technology that only Hancom and Microsoft possess globally. It can flexibly interoperate with various language models, including large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs).

Hancom is participating in government-led AI infrastructure projects as well. By supplying AI solutions for the 'Pan-Government Foundation for Hyper-scale AI,' which enables government ministries and local governments to use generative AI without security concerns, Hancom is playing a key role in establishing the foundation for AI adoption.

Hancom is also a major partner in national AI projects. It is participating as a partner in the independent AI foundation model development project led by the Ministry of Science and ICT, joining the LG AI Research consortium and taking on the role of expanding services based on large-scale document data.