"Artificial intelligence (AI) can become a "social safety net" that connects people and society."
Ok Roo-hun, head of the AI Care Call business at Naver Cloud, said this at the "SMARTCLOUD SHOW 2025" held on the 27th at the Westin Josun Hotel in Seoul. He gave a lecture on the theme "Business cases of generative AI cloud - challenges and innovations of Clova Care Call."
He noted the trends in the development of generative AI technology unfolding globally and introduced the success factors that enabled Clova Care Call, which has integrated generative AI functionalities, to spread.
The "Clova Care Call" service started in November 2021 when Naver Cloud introduced it as a pilot service in Haeundae District of Busan. Its core function is for AI to call lonely elderly people and middle-aged single households to check on their well-being. It was developed to address the potential "care gap" that could arise as society enters an ultra-aged era.
As of September last year, this service was implemented in 128 out of 229 cities and counties nationwide, more than half. The official service was launched in May 2022, and the number of users has surpassed 30,000 in about two years. In June, Izumo City in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, also started using Clova Care Call. About 30% of the population in this city is aged 65 and older.
Ok noted the reasons for the expansion of Clova Care Call: ▲digital inclusiveness ▲AI technology ▲ethics ▲targeting the government-to-business (B2G) market. He said, "AI is not perfect, so continuous enhancement is needed. Naver Cloud has focused on four directions to develop Clova Care Call's functionalities," adding, "As a result of reflecting continuous feedback from B2G adoption into the service, we were able to enter the Japanese market."
Naver Cloud planned Clova Care Call to address the increase in deaths from loneliness among elderly people living alone, which surged due to restrictions on face-to-face contact stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ok said, "Various technologies existed that could reduce lonely deaths, but I felt there was a lack of consideration for the emotional aspects," adding, "I believed that by utilizing Naver's technology, which secured its AI model as the third fastest in the world, we could incorporate health management into the service." He further stated, "We combined phone calls and AI to provide the service to desired individuals at desired times, even with a small workforce."
After launching Clova Care Call, Naver Cloud gradually made the service more user-friendly through the "data augmentation" process (a technique to create new data suitable for the purpose in order to enrich a limited amount of learning data). Ok noted, "We enhanced the feature to remember previous conversations and inspected approximately 200,000 learning data according to our own 'ethical principles.' As a result, the satisfaction indicator rose from 80% to 90%," adding, "The aspect that has changed the most is that elderly people evaluate that 'the phone has become more considerate.'" He went on to say, "Elderly individuals with dementia who use Naver Care Call for about 6 months to a year experience improvements in memory and cognitive functions, as well as reductions in depression."
Based on the references accumulated in Korea, Naver Cloud knocked on the door of the Japanese market. Ok noted, "Japan, which has entered an ultra-aged society ahead of our country, also had AI similar to Clova Care Call, but we successfully entered the market by proving better performance," adding, "It seems we will secure over 50,000 users in total, both domestically and internationally, by the end of the year." He also remarked, "While it took about 4 years for the domestic expansion of Clova Care Call, the entry into Japan took only 2 months from initial exploration to realization."