Hancom to unveil document creator like Mircrosoft's Copilot

Hancom Inc., a homegrown office suite developer in South Korea, is set to speed up its artificial intelligence business with a beta service of AI-powered document generation software next year, Chief Executive Kim Yeon-su said on Tuesday.

“Hancom will scale up its AI business in earnest next year. We will expand our presence in the market with our in-house intelligent automation (IA) services including the document generator Hancom Assistant,” Kim said during the firm’s presentation on AI business strategy in Seoul.

Similar to Microsoft Corp.’s 365 Copilot, Hancom Assistant understands users’ commands in natural language and helps with document creation. Hancom plans to release the software’s beta version in the first half of next year.

The company will also develop an AI-powered question-answering system for users who need to understand long and complicated documents. The system will enhance work productivity and save costs via a large language model (LLM) optimized for the purpose, Hancom said.  

Hancom has been boosting its brand awareness in the global B2B market with software development kits (SDKs). An SDK is a set of tools and programs that developers use to build software.

The company also eyes global expansion via M&As. It is considering buying a European AI company and is looking for local firms that can advance into overseas markets, Kim said.

In addition, it will establish a foothold in Japan first to boost global sales of IA systems, with a goal to become one of the world’s biggest tech firms within five years, Kim explained.

To increase shareholder value, Hancom will return 25-30% of its free cash flow (FCF) to stakeholders in dividends and buy its shares back from this year to 2026.

Meanwhile, the CEO, Chairman Kim Sang-chul’s daughter, said the recent scandal related to cryptocurrency Arowana has no connection to Hancom and its top management.

The value of the cryptocurrency, backed by the firm’s affiliate Hancom With, soared more than 1,000 times to 53,800 won ($41.5) within the first 30 minutes of listing on local exchange Bithumb in April 2021. Investors have raised suspicions that Hancom’s top management was involved in manipulating the token's price.

Police applied for an arrest warrant for the Chairman’s son earlier this month to investigate allegations into the cryptocurrency price spike.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.