NHN said on the 30th that it signed a three-way memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its senior care subsidiary Waplat and AI care service corporations Marknova to build and operate an "AI-based smart home care service."
The agreement was prepared to build an "AI smart home care" environment that applies AI technology to seniors' living spaces to address the shortage of care workers as society enters a super-aged phase. To that end, the three companies will share ▲ NHN's large-scale AI infrastructure, ▲ Waplat's capabilities in operating a smartphone-based integrated care platform service, and ▲ Marknova's technology for care-specific devices and its know-how in the care business.
NHN will support an infrastructure environment optimized for AI care services based on its experience operating a national AI data center and its capacity to build a national GPU infrastructure. Leveraging technology accumulated by participating in the government's independent AI foundation model project (national LLM development project), it plans to back the implementation of advanced intelligent services.
Waplat operates the smartphone-based integrated care service "Waplat AI life assistant." Since its launch in Jul. 2024, the service has expanded to 23 local governments nationwide, and by applying an AI human UX with the persona of a "woman in her 50s life assistant," it has proven field effectiveness, recording a 95% usage rate among seniors. Through this agreement, Waplat plans to provide advanced AI care services linked to smart home environments, based on its already validated AI life assistant service.
Marknova has provided AI care devices and services it directly planned and developed to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's "emergency safety service for seniors living alone and people with disabilities" and the "AI/IoT-based senior health management project." Through this agreement, Marknova's AI care device will serve as an in-home smart home gateway, organically linking various IoT sensors; health management devices such as glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, and scales; and the Waplat service to create an integrated care environment that continuously supports seniors' health and safety.
The collaboration is significant in that it implements a care model integrating AI technology, data, and devices. Taking this agreement as a starting point, the three companies plan to further develop an intelligent care model optimized for real living spaces and advance it into a standard model that can be immediately used in the public sector, including local governments.
Marknova CEO Choi Hyeok said, "By combining Marknova's AI senior care technology with NHN's infrastructure and Waplat's platform, we are now able to present a smart home model in which care services, devices, and the platform are organically integrated," adding, "In line with the government's intelligent care policy direction, we will complete a user-centric care service that is most trustworthy in the actual living spaces of older adults."
Hwang Sun-young, director of NHN's Legal and Policy Group (and Waplat CEO), said, "A shift to digital centered on living spaces is essential to close care gaps in a super-aged society," adding, "By combining NHN Group's AI technology with Marknova's on-site device technology, we will build a sustainable AI smart home infrastructure that allows older adults to age healthily in the places they have lived."