There is no need to use a top-tier artificial intelligence (AI) model for routine tasks. Now the biggest concern for corporations is not whether to adopt AI, but how efficiently to use AI.
Nucky Pang, general manager (GM) of Tencent Cloud International, said this in an interview with ChosunBiz on the 15th. Pang noted that AI token usage by corporations is surging to a level that is hard to manage worldwide, including in Korea, and explained that AI expense optimization (FinOps) has emerged as a core task for corporations. A token is the basic unit an AI model uses to process information and generate answers.
In line with this trend, Tencent Cloud plans to accelerate its push into the Korean market by promoting an AI solution strong in "token optimization." Pang said there is no need to use expensive models for simple tasks such as document summarization or search, adding that it recommends AI models tailored to individual tasks and proposes ways to combine tokens optimally to help customers reduce expense. The idea is to help corporations raise productivity while lowering expense by using low-cost models for simple tasks and top-tier (frontier) models for complex coding and development work.
WorkBuddy, unveiled by Tencent Cloud earlier this month, is an AI-based work productivity platform designed to automate complex, multi-step tasks using AI agents. It offers more than 100 specialized AI agents across finance, law, market research and more. By integrating with various large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI's GPT-5.5, Anthropic's Claude, and Tencent's Hunyuan, users can flexibly deploy agents to match expense, performance, and intended use.
Pang emphasized that with WorkBuddy, corporations can systematically manage AI usage because they can check each individual's token consumption.
This year, it plans to expand its business in Korea with a focus on games, e-commerce, entertainment, and OTT (online video services). Pang said Korea is a key strategic market for Tencent Cloud, which is posting double-digit growth every year, and pledged to keep investing. Pang added that the Korean stock market is rising at a remarkable pace and that, given expectations for growth in Korea's AI industry are reflected in the stock market, the investment appeal is strong.
Marking its eighth year in Korea, Tencent Cloud provides cloud infrastructure to major domestic game companies and supports more than 60% of domestic live-streaming platforms. Tencent, the parent company of Tencent Cloud, has the world's largest game ecosystem and, based on its experience operating AI technology on WeChat, a messenger service used by more than 1.4 billion people, has established itself as a key partner for Korea's game industry.
In particular, it plans to help game companies improve development efficiency based on Tencent's in-house AI model Hunyuan. Pang said the recently launched Hunyuan 3D for the global market can shorten certain 3D asset production processes that used to take more than a month to just minutes. Hunyuan 3D is a model that automatically generates high-quality 3D content from inputs such as text or images, helping game companies create 3D content faster.
Heo Jeong-pil, country manager (head of Korea) for Tencent Cloud Korea, cited price competitiveness, performance on par with global cloud service providers (CSPs), and end-to-end technical support spanning infrastructure to AI models and applications as Tencent Cloud's differentiators. He added that through Tencent's "Go China" program, it will actively support Korean corporations entering the Chinese and overseas markets.
Addressing security, personal information protection, and data governance concerns raised because Tencent is a Chinese corporation, Heo said Tencent's services in Korea are provided from two domestic internet data centers (IDCs) and are all subject to Korean law, adding that it is continually obtaining related certifications from the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and the National Intelligence Service.