'Persona AI' is a startup that won an innovation award at 'CES', the world's largest IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA in January this year. However, there is a story about how the company almost failed right before its establishment in 2017.

Before CEO Seungjae Yoo founded Persona AI, he was in another IT business when he was attacked by a cyber attack. It was not a mistake or development issue on the company's part. It was because he used a web hosting company that had been hit by ransomware. Ransomware is a compound word of 'ransom' and 'software'. It is a malicious program that takes a computer user's files hostage and demands bitcoin or money. It became widely known in 2017 when ransomware attacks spread and damage occurred in over 100 countries.

All of his data and files were destined to disappear. CEO Seungjae Yoo exchanged all of his assets for bitcoin. The hacker's offer was that if he sent bitcoin, he would restore the original state.

The requested Bitcoin was said to be worth over 1 billion won. CEO Yoo said, "There is no guarantee that the data will be restored even if you give Bitcoin, so I sent a small amount and checked the response," and laughed, saying, "After the deposit was made, not only the recovery but also the after-sales service was good, so I was able to start the business in earnest."

If CEO Yoo had kept the 1 billion won worth of Bitcoin he lost 8 years ago, he might have become a 'new rich man' famous not only in Korea but also around the world. However, this led CEO Yoo to prepare a new business after much thought. It is a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) business.

Persona AI was newly introduced with such a heartbreaking story. The company has grown rapidly, receiving recognition as the most competitive company in the GEN AICC (generative artificial intelligence contact center) field in Korea. We recently met CEO Yoo and asked him about his AI business and future plans.

Persona AI was established in 2017 after going through the research and development (R&D) stage from 2015 to 2016. The core business model is GEN AICC. It applied various AI technologies such as voice engines, voice recognition, and sentence analysis to provide a solution that allows 24-hour consultation through AI chatbots and callbots without waiting for a counselor to connect.

CEO Yoo said, "At that time, the conversational AI field was receiving attention worldwide, and chatbots and callbots were seen as the services that could approach users first," and "I thought that such services could answer most of the users' questions, and if technologically advanced, they could develop into consultation-related information recommendations for call center counselors, and even report work."

Persona AI attracted the attention of the market in 2021 when it launched services targeting domestic and foreign companies by introducing its own AI solutions such as chatbots and callbots necessary for the AICC business.

Financial institutions such as KB Financial Group and Hanwha General Insurance, which are considered relatively picky, took action. They provided customized AICC solutions and subscription services to customers by utilizing technology based on a lightweight natural language processing engine that implements optimal performance even with limited data. The Korean conversation engine applied to Persona AI's AI chatbot 'Sonar Chat' recorded a 100% Korean language recognition rate in the Korea Language Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS). The solution (KGPT) that strengthens security to safely utilize ChatGPT is also a differentiating point.

SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in Korea, has even made a direct investment. In 2023, SK Telecom will invest 5 billion won (9.2% stake) to become Persona AI's third-largest shareholder. At the time, SK Telecom introduced Persona AI as "a company with the technological prowess and product competitiveness that developed its own natural language processing (NLP) engine and introduced a subscription-based AICC service for the first time in Korea," and "is drawing attention in the industry for its domestic top-level competitiveness in the AICC field."

Persona AI has also joined the 'K-AI Alliance' launched by SK Telecom and is continuing its cooperative relationship. CEO Yoo said, "Thanks to SK Telecom's help, we had the opportunity to introduce our company on global stages such as CES and MWC, and we also developed joint products," and added, "In particular, since our recent participation in CES, we have been receiving a lot of inquiries from overseas companies for cooperation." In fact, SK Telecom held an IR pitching day with 'K-AI Alliance' member companies at CES in January and provided Persona AI with a presentation opportunity.

At this year's CES, it received an innovation award. Its self-developed sLLM (small language model) and service that applied generative AI technology were recognized. It infers the user's speech intent and enables hyper-personalized customized education and real-time communication, and most of all, it was developed in an on-device form with a lightweight AI engine, so it works without an internet connection, drawing attention. CEO Yoo said, "There was a temporary internet outage in the Las Vegas area during CES, but our service worked without any problems, which made it even more of a hot topic at the exhibition."

He expressed a positive view of the Chinese AI service 'DeepSeek' that recently took the world by storm. CEO Yoo said, "We see this as a positive wave in that it showed excellent quality with a small model," and added, "We are also researching and developing this kind of inference model." However, he does not view DeepSec or other AI services as competitors. He said, "Rather than competitors, we think only of our customers," and "We will create and deliver the AI ​​that our customers need."

Persona AI plans to strengthen its related capabilities by not only enhancing its AICC service but also expanding its generative AI service. In particular, it has set a goal of strengthening its corporate services, such as 'KGPT', a Korean-style GPT service that does not have hallucinations, and 'GenStation', a generative AI platform for enterprises. In the case of KGPT, it supports flexible linkage with global LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, as well as Naver's LLM (large-scale language model) HyperClova X.

Furthermore, it plans to expand its business scope by installing solutions on various hardware devices and actively explore entering the global market. CEO Yoo said, "We are already pursuing plans to collaborate with Chinese robot companies," and "We have been creating AI core technologies and selling solutions and subscription products, and we plan to further expand this and pursue an initial public offering (IPO) within the year."

- Original article: https://news.bizwatch.co.kr/article/mobile/2025/03/10/0027