- Accelerates Digital Transformation Through the 'Data Highway Project' Integrating R&I Assets

Amorepacific has built a research-specialized generative AI platform grounded in seven decades of R&I expertise.

Through the 'Data Highway' project carried out in collaboration with KT, Amorepacific has reorganized its research assets into an AI-readable and AI-usable format, developing the 'AI Assistant LEMON (Lab Efficiency Mode ON),' a generative AI service specifically intended for research.

Since establishing Korea's first cosmetics research laboratory in 1954, Amorepacific has accumulated a vast pool of R&I assets, including ingredient information, formulation data, research reports, patents, and academic papers. However, because this data was dispersed across multiple systems, finding and leveraging the necessary information was challenging, which also limited the scope of AI utilization.

To address this, Amorepacific joined hands with KT starting last year, led by its internal AX (AI Transformation) division, to drive the 'Data Highway' project. The two companies jointly designed and developed an 'AI Ready Data'-based platform and AI services optimized for AI use, creating an 'AI Data Hub' that integrates and standardizes millions of structured and unstructured data points, including ingredient information, formulation data, and research reports.

Based on this hub, Amorepacific also built the 'AI Assistant LEMON,' a research-specialized Large Language Model (LLM) service. Using LEMON, researchers can quickly filter, analyze, and leverage extensive research data across various functions, including R&I, production, quality control, and regulatory compliance. Additionally, the AI assistant facilitates diverse forms of exploration, discovery, and suggestions during the research process.

Beta testing of 'AI Assistant LEMON' conducted with researchers at the Amorepacific R&I Center showed that research material and regulatory review tasks during the product planning stage, which previously took about 12 days, were reduced to approximately 5 minutes. In addition, the time required to review the research literature on a specific ingredient and its potential application in products dropped from about 6 days to around 5 minutes.

Through this project, Amorepacific aims to encourage innovation within its entire research ecosystem rather than merely introducing an AI service. Moving forward, the company plans to expand digital transformation initiatives, such as introducing 'AI Agents,' allowing researchers to reduce repetitive information-seeking tasks and focus on more creative research activities, including establishing new hypotheses and driving technological innovation.

Byung-Fhy Suh, CTO of the Amorepacific R&I Center, stated, "Good AI can become a true research partner only when it utilizes good data. This project holds significant meaning in that Amorepacific is leading the transformation of the research environment for the AI era." He added, "Moving forward, the AI platform will handle repetitive search and analysis tasks, while researchers focus on creative questions and innovation. The Data Highway and LEMON will serve as the starting point for building a new research ecosystem."