[Korea Wave, October 29]Following in the footsteps of South Korea’s largest telecommunications companies SK Telecom and KT, LG U+ has launched its own artificial intelligence (AI) service, forming a full-scale competitive landscape. SK Telecom and KT launched their own brands five or six years ago and have been applying AI to a variety of services. In the age of digital transformation (DX), they saw AI as a key technology for moving beyond telecommunications and reached out to it early on. Although LG U+ is quite late in its tactics, it is accelerating the pace of improving its competitiveness through the use of AI.

LG U+ launched its own AI brand, “ixi,” on the 25th. With this, all three telecommunications companies will be offering their own AI services.

SK Telecom was the first of the three mobile carriers to unveil its own AI. The company launched “NUGU,” which was billed as an AI secretary, in 2016. The AI ​​speaker using NUGU sold 100,000 units within seven months of its release.

Now, it has gone beyond being a simple speaker and is being used in major services of SK affiliates, including the telephone platform T Phone, SK Broadband IPTV set-top box, T Map and various other services that provide voice guidance.

In addition to simply providing information, the service has expanded its scope to include shopping and consultations. The AI ​​speaker can be used to purchase items, and even provide care services. The company has also launched a “Watch Care Call” service that monitors those in home quarantine for COVID-19 vaccines and calls elderly people living alone to check on their safety through “Nugu Care Call.”

Recently, the company has made a full-scale foray into business-to-business (B2B) transactions with ‘NUGU bizcall’, which is unique in that partner companies can directly create AI call scenarios.

(c)NEWSIS/KOREA WAVE/AFPBB News