LG Uplus to strengthen AI and data businesses with launch of voicebot

LG Uplus Corp., the mobile network arm of LG Corp., is poised to strengthen its business-to-business (B2B) operations by utilizing its artificial intelligence and data analytics capabilities. 

The goal is to increase its corporate value by generating revenue from the two verticals the way Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc. do. 

LG Uplus chief data officer (CDO) Gabe Hwang held a press conference at the company's headquarters in Seoul on Thursday.

Last July, LG Uplus launched a new division in charge of AI development and data analytics. The division has six project groups under it, including the AI Contact Center, Insight, Targeting and more. 

Hwang said, “We will launch an AI Contact Center service specialized for mom-and-pop shops and strengthen the competitiveness of our data products.”

The company is pursuing a structural reshuffle and actively recruiting in this regard, he added. 

The "AI Store Manager” voicebot is expected to be the star product from the AI Contact Center, to be launched in August. 

The bot will be equipped to pick up calls from customers to ask about their preferred reservation or appointment time slots, the number in the party, and menu choices and then relay the information to the restaurant or store owner. It will also be able to answer questions about the location and parking availability. 

The Insight division is preparing to launch “Data Plus,” which provides information analysis to corporate clients as they devise their business strategies. 

LG Uplus will also work on recruiting in-house talent to replace the workforce loss from outsourced human resources and technical collaborations. 

The plan is to recruit some 200 employees in fields such as AI, data science, platform engineering, and machine learning. That would essentially double the wireless carrier's number of employees working in these fields.

"It is integral for an organization to have internal software talent if it aspires to meet skyrocketing demand for hyper-personalization and hyper-connectivity," the data chief said. 

Hwang promised that he will put in diverse efforts to ensure that LG Uplus' artificial intelligence technology and data become the company's strategic assets.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.