Hyundai Home Shopping launches live broadcast using AI tech

South Korea's Hyundai Home Shopping Network Corp. on Tuesday said it will release the new concept show based on artificial intelligence (AI) "Seo Ah-rang's Shopping Live" every Wednesday.

The show's host is fashion influencer Seo Ah-rang, who is accompanied by the 3D graphic avatar Rangi. 

Rangi assists the host by explaining fashion products and materials and answering questions from viewers. Hyundai Home Shopping said image-generating AI is applied to make the avatar's gestures, facial expressions and mouth shapes appear more natural.

The broadcast also shows real-time 3D images of outfits requested by customers.

When a viewer asks if jeans match a product sold on the program, an avatar model appears wearing both the product with jeans through instant image generation technology, which presents up to 20 styles in a minute. This allows viewers to see matching methods and styling in advance before purchasing.

"This is the first time for a home shopping fashion broadcaster to apply AI technology when doing a live broadcast with real-time customer participation," a company source said. "We will provide to customers a special shopping experience with differentiated content based on our own planning and production capabilities."

Write to Mi-Kyoung Lee at capital@hankyung.com