Seung-jae Yoo, CEO of Persona AI, said in an interview with GDNet Korea on the 9th, “There are many AI companies, but not many AI that can be used by the public. has,” he said.
With the release of ChatGPT, generative AI is attracting attention worldwide. Persona AI drew attention by introducing a Korean-style ChatGPT (KGPT) optimized for business. We have data generation to create AI and the technology to automatically generate AI through it.
Persona AI is the third company founded by Yoo Seung-jae. The first start-up was when I was in my third year of high school, and I made a company that develops software. Representative Yoo said, “In a way, curiosity and patriotism inspired me to establish Persona AI.” It may be excellent in terms of SW, but I founded Persona AI because I think Korean companies can do better in the ‘language technology area’ where you can communicate in Korean.”
CEO Yoo, who started AI research in 2015, established a corporate company in March 2017, two years later, and then changed the name to the current Persona AI in March 2020. He emphasized, “Unlike our competitors, we have developed and possessed our own AI engine, which is a special feature,” and “because of this, we can provide customized services to customers at a lower cost.”
Persona AI provides both B2B and B2C services. There are about 1000 customers. Including 'Bottalks', AICC (AI Contact Center) provided in the cloud ▲Chatbot solution 'Rocha' ▲Unmanned call center 'Callbot' ▲AI kiosk 'Deeptalk' ▲AI Semiconductor 'AI Semi' ▲AI-based knowledge management system 'AI KMS' ▲Education solution 'Smart Tutor' ▲AI insurance planner 'Robo Teller' ▲Address robot ' It has developed and supplied a total of 9 types of products, including 'Address Bot'.
Among them, the most profitable products are 'Chatbot' and 'Callbot'. The two products account for about 70% of total sales (40% for chatbots and 30% for callbots). CEO Yoo emphasized, “We are the number one in Korea with cloud-based AICC,” and “we will continue to increase our market dominance.” In December of last year, Persona AI was recognized for its technological prowess, being the only Korean company to rank in the top 3 at the ‘Korea-US Startup Summit’ held in New York, USA. Below is the Q&A with CEO Yoo
-Persona AI is your third startup. The motivation for starting a business is unique.
“I saw on TV that famous foreign companies were learning Korean. Afterwards, I became interested in AI and looked at trends around the world. I asked why foreign AI learns Korean? However, I thought that Korean companies could do better with AI that communicates in Korean. Even in 2015, the world was just starting to talk (conversation) AI. It was a time when large foreign companies were not good at it and every country was not good at it. I created Persona AI because I thought I would have a vision if I preoccupied the time."
-The main product is AICC's 'BOTtalks'. which product?
"It is a cloud-based AICC service. It enables easy cloud-based AICC production without coding. Anyone can easily create AI by using only a prompt. In general, to use an AI chatbot, you must go through complicated coding and manual work, but 'Bottox' ' has no such hassle. For example, if you are a small business owner running a one-man restaurant, you can use this bottox to simply enter a menu and create an AI menu board just by typing in. So the name was also named as a compound word of Bot and Talks."
- I heard that you have a trademark for the name 'CallBot'
"Callbot is a voice-based telephone counseling artificial intelligence. It is a conversational platform engine solution. It has long been involved in the 'CallBot' business, an unmanned call center. Unlike text-based 'Chatbot', it is characterized by being voice-based. .Now, the word 'Callbot' has become popular, but it was an unfamiliar term when we first registered the word 'Callbot' as a trademark in 2017. Our company owns the trademark for the word 'Callbot'."
-There are many AI-based chatbot companies. What kind of competitiveness do you have?
"We have an original engine developed in-house. Therefore, unlike other companies that do not have original technology, we can automatically create the data AI needs. All AI needs data. Technology that automatically creates this data In particular, if there is a document, it learns the document and automatically creates data.”
-Competition or cooperation with ChatGPT?
“We are a company that generates natural language similar to ChatGPT. When ChatGPT entered Korea and received public attention, our company also received attention. There is no reason to compete with ChatGPT. We use our product and ChatGPT as an ensemble to create a single product. ChatGPT is good, but there are issues with security, etc. So, when used together with our product, usability can be greatly improved.”
-Started AI research in 2015 and founded the company in 2017
“There is an episode from that time. Founding members were gathered in 2015, and after 2 years of hard research and development, the money ran out. It is related to a major hacking incident that occurred at that time. The companies that used . were severely damaged. We were also in this category. In particular, I was managing the servers of the companies that were managed by the company I first started, and these servers were also damaged. The servers of the companies suffered damage, and they compensated for all of it. It was the only company that took 100% of the damage to the customer even though it was a company that was hacked. So, at that time, the money ran out and the operating funds were desperately needed. Converted to a corporation and completed the task. I wrote 13 of them, but 2 of them were selected, commercialized the product and received investment with this money. It was a very difficult and dizzying moment.”
-What is the main and cumulative investment amount
"In the past, Hyosung Ventures, a company-led venture capital (CVC) operated by Hyosung, attracted an investment of 2 billion won in June last year along with Lindman and JB Investment. In particular, Hyosung Ventures' investment is in textiles, chemicals, heavy industry, and new materials. It is meaningful in that Hyosung, which has been active in the field, has invested in the AI field beyond the manufacturing sector, and we are the first investment company in Hyosung CVC.The cumulative investment amount is 8.5 billion won, and additional investments are scheduled soon, so the total is 10 billion won in Series A. exceeds this.”
-The first product launched on the market is the chatbot solution 'Rocha'. what kind of product
"This product was released in May, two months after the establishment of the corporation in March 2017. It is an interactive platform engine solution. It is easy to customize and has the characteristics of being expandable to various services. Currently, there are about 5 versions of 'Rocha'.'
-What is the domestic trend of the chatbot market like 'Rocha'?
“We developed and own the engine. We are differentiated from other companies that have received technology transfer from domestic research institutes in that we have the original engine. Also, all AI needs data, and we also have the technology to automatically generate this data. This is This is our great advantage. Among all AI companies, it is estimated that only 3% have original engines. The remaining 97% are application software companies."
-What does it mean to automatically generate data?
"Usually, AI companies must have data from their customers. They receive data from their customers and hire part-time workers to learn this data. We are different. AI creates this data and has this technology. 'NLG (Natural Language Generation)'."
- Does this technology only have Persona AI?
"Yes. We are the only one in Korea. There is Google overseas. Our interest is 'how to make people use AI well.' Deeply, we have our own technology. For example, if we have voice data from GDNet, if we put this voice file into our platform, learning data will come out automatically. In the case of counselors, we just need to give them the files we consulted with customers. On the other hand, we and Unlike competitors, you have to put in data when creating a chatbot. We don't have to. Our alcohol can be learned in four languages: Korean, English, and Chinese. In Korea, I haven't seen a place with the same technology as ours yet."
- All 7 founding members in 2015 are still working
"This is also our strength. None of the members who first met in 2015 have left the company and are still attending. It started with 3 members, and since then it has grown to 7 members, but they are still together. Currently, the total number of employees is about 40."
-It's the cloud era. How many SaaS customers do you have?
"The number exceeded 1,000 last June. It is expected to increase to more than 150% by the end of this year. The SaaS business is in the maintenance phase this year, and we plan to start it in earnest from next year."
-It is rare for companies specializing in AI to make proper sales and profits. Last year's sales and profits?
“Last year’s sales were KRW 3 billion and profits were made. We exceeded the break-even point (BEP) only with SaaS sales. This year, we already exceeded last year’s sales in the first half. system integration). We only do solution business. Even if it seems slow, we have to go to solution business."
-Are you exporting?
"Yes. We supplied AI kiosks to four countries, including the United States and Switzerland. We learned many lessons at the time. For example, Switzerland values philosophy over product function. On the other hand, the United States focuses on function. Different countries have different differences. Not in a hurry. I will prepare step by step to enter the market. Then the global market will open.”
-What are your plans for listing?
"We're planning. Recently, the door to the technology special listing has widened. I think it's a good opportunity."
-At the Korea-US Startup Summit held in New York in September of last year, it was the only Korean company to be ranked in the top 3.
"We were selected as the top 3 with cloud-based AICC. Only the top 3 companies were selected, without first or second place. About 2,000 startups in Korea and the US applied, and the final 30 companies applied for PT. Among them, our company was ranked in the top 3."
-How is the company's manpower?
“Very good. There are not many experts in the market who can handle language and AI at the same time, but there are many such experts in our research center. For example, the vice president of technology is a Ph.D.
The CAO in charge of AI is from Harvard University, and the executive in charge of the project is a founding member of Golfzon and Megazone, and has abundant know-how. In the case of the CFO, he graduated from the Department of Business Administration at Seoul National University and has experience in listing, and other executives and staff members also have outstanding expertise in their respective fields."
- His mustache is impressive. since when did you grow it
"From the age of 20 (laughs)"
-What kind of corporate culture do you have?
"First of all, there are very few people who quit. It's normal, but it has a horizontal culture. I don't know how it sounds, but I think of myself as a 'dad'. The same goes for employees older than me. I actually have a daughter, and the company thinks I'm a dad. No matter what the staff did wrong, they didn't get angry. I think this is what happens after I've been in business for over 10 years (laughs). I see my employees with parental feelings."
-I heard that they are also doing embedded semiconductor business.
“Our biggest difference is that we developed the AI engine ourselves. Unlike us, companies that borrow engines cannot customize (customized service) because of the encrypted core. There is no technology accumulation, and when you sell a product, you pay a license fee. We have to do it. Product launches are inevitably slow. We are different. We have the original technology, so there is no such inconvenience.
The semiconductors we make are not hardware (HW). HW is not something we are good at. Instead, we will purchase embedded semiconductors and lighten our engines. We will join hands with semiconductor companies and discuss them from the design stage. I already planted this in the kiosk. After the kiosk, it will be planted in driverless cars and smart home devices.
Smart home is already in progress with construction companies. This was done before the government emphasized AI semiconductors, but I did not know at the beginning of the business that the government would emphasize AI semiconductors that much.
After all, this is a business that is possible because we have an engine developed in-house. A competitor without an engine can't do this business."
