"The pandemic broke out in 2020, changing the way meetings are conducted. People had to hold video conferences using a camera instead of face-to-face interactions. It was burdensome to have faces displayed on the screen, and later, it became uncomfortable to keep my face fixed in front of the camera for long periods. This experience led to my decision to start an AI avatar communication platform."
Ahn Doo-kyung (41), CEO of GoodGangLabs, said this during a meeting with CHOSUNBIZ at his office in Jeongja-dong, Seongnam, on the 6th of last month. He noted, "I worked as the head of global product partnerships at Facebook from 2017 to 2022, and due to the nature of the job and COVID-19, online meetings became very frequent," adding, "If the camera is turned off, non-verbal elements like facial expressions and gestures disappear, so I thought avatars could be the solution."
Ahn worked as a service planner at KT Alpha (formerly KT Hitel), where he handled pudding face recognition, and planned products like 'B612', 'LINE Camera', and 'Poodi' at LINE, a subsidiary of Naver. He later took charge of the product partnerships for Korea and Japan at Meta (formerly Facebook) and was responsible for global partnerships at Meta's headquarters in the United States. While working at Meta, he saw the potential of the AI avatar market and, in 2022, teamed up with former colleagues like Kim Jae-cheol, CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at KTH, and Kim Seo-young, CCO (Chief Creative Officer), who he had worked with at LINE and Meta, to start GoodGangLabs.
GoodGangLabs is a startup developing an AI avatar communication platform. In March 2023, it received investment from Naver's startup fostering organization D2SF, and in May of the same year, it attracted investment from Kakao's investment subsidiary, Kakao Investment. To date, the total amount raised is around 3.6 billion won. The current number of employees is 10, and it generates revenue by selling AI avatar technology.
Earlier, GoodGangLabs made a name for itself in the industry through NFT (non-fungible token) sales in 2023. It conducted an NFT avatar project through the global NFT platform 'DOSI' under LINE NEXT, Naver's NFT subsidiary, selling a total of 3,333 pieces in the first round and another 3,333 in the second round. After the first sale, the cumulative transaction amount exceeded 1 billion won.
◇ AI avatar response speed '1 second' and accuracy '99.9%'
GoodGangLabs has expanded its business into video conferencing, NFTs, and the metaverse, focusing on the AI avatar staff market since last year. The AI avatar staff, as the name suggests, are avatars created by AI that perform service roles instead of humans. GoodGangLabs is starting with the AI avatar staff solution and is paying attention to the ordering market via kiosks.
The kiosk equipped with GoodGangLabs' AI avatar staff assists people without requiring them to adapt to using the kiosk. Currently, kiosks involve a complex structure for finding menus, selecting options, reviewing orders, choosing payment methods, and completing transactions. However, kiosks with GoodGangLabs' technology allow users to simply state their order as if speaking to a person. This enables ordering through natural, voice-based conversation with the AI avatar displayed on the screen.
GoodGangLabs explained that by integrating its self-developed software and microphones into existing kiosks, they can utilize the AI avatar ordering solution. In November of last year, they installed a kiosk at Suwon University to conduct a demonstration service where the AI avatar takes voice orders for meal tickets in the student cafeteria. This commercialization of kiosks is the first in the country.
Ahn said, "A small language model (SLM) performance test of the AI avatar ordering solution was conducted at a certification institution, with a response speed recorded under 1 second and an accuracy exceeding 99.9%," adding, "The ability to recognize voice like a real conversation and provide quick responses is a strong point."
Ahn forecasted that as AI services evolve from chatbots to voicebots, an era of communication with AI avatars will soon arrive. He said, "In the future, communication between humans and AI will develop into AI avatar-based interactions, similar to conversations between people, surpassing text-based communication."
◇ "Stiff AI will be softened through avatars"
GoodGangLabs is also focused on AI visualization to implement attractive characters, alongside the sophistication of AI services. In looking at actual commercialized AI avatars, it can often be observed that when performance is high, visualization is lacking, and when visualization is exceptional, performance may fall short; thus, they place importance on balancing both.
Ahn stated, "At LINE, I had been overseeing the planning of products like 'B612' and 'LINE Camera', steadily engaging in image-related work," and added, "Through that experience, I realized how crucial it is for avatar characters to create appealing images." He continued, "GoodGangLabs is working hard on both performance enhancement and design."
Ahn struggled to gather a large amount of quality data during the character implementation process. He said, "Human motion has accumulated data, but avatars such as 3-body and 5-body forms are not standardized and are mostly copyrighted by production companies, which makes data accumulation challenging," adding, "To address this, we hired 3D motion artists, and even our staff participated by manually acting out various actions in the office to create avatar motion data." He noted, "Everyone worked tirelessly day and night in this process, resulting in our competitive advantage of possessing avatar-specialized motion data."
In the future, GoodGangLabs plans to collaborate with popular character intellectual properties (IPs) to expand its solution applications to virtual clerks, K-POP virtual idols, educational mates, financial consultation assistants, and guiding secretaries in healthcare institutions. By January, they plan to open 'GGLS' on Garosu-gil in Seoul, a space to purchase items unmanned through AI avatar staff and digital signage. After validating the market potential of GGLS, they intend to expand their business to B2B (business-to-business) formats starting in the second quarter.
The AI avatar market holds immense growth potential. According to market research firm Grand View Research, the global digital avatar market is estimated to be worth $18.19 billion (24 trillion won) in 2023. It is also projected to record an average annual growth rate of about 50% from 2024 to 2030.
Ahn noted, "The AI avatar market is rapidly growing, but it's realistically difficult for individual corporations to develop all the technologies they need by themselves." He expressed his aspirations, saying, "Last year, we launched the AI avatar staff solution, and this year we aim to expand our business."