Shin Dong-bin's Rapid 'AI Transformation'... Lotte's Blueprint to be Released Next Month

Lotte Home Shopping AI Influencer Exclusive Broadcast
Lotte Department Store's First Collaboration with AI Artist
Chairman Shin Emphasizes AI Transition in This Year's New Year's Address

Lotte Group's blueprint for artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, identified as its future growth engine, will be unveiled next month. This move reflects the group's acceleration in related businesses following Chairman Shin Dong-bin's repeated emphasis on 'AI Transformation.'

According to industry sources on the 13th, Lotte Group's AI control tower, the Tech Force (TF), will conclude its operations next month and plans to establish strategies enabling each affiliate to leverage AI technology as a growth driver. Previously, since September last year, Lotte Holdings has operated the AI TF under Vice President No Jun-hyung, head of ESG Management Innovation Office, with Executive Director Hyun Jong-do as team leader.

Vice President No and Executive Director Hyun both come from Lotte Data Communication Company, Lotte Group's IT service specialist. Vice President No led new businesses and IT/digital transformation (DT) projects as head of the DT Business Division and CEO of Lotte Data Communication Company, expanding into various fields such as metaverse, electric vehicle charging, urban air mobility (UAM), and autonomous driving. Executive Director Hyun joined Lotte after working at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), IBM, and Deloitte Consulting.

Following the group's AI transformation, the scope of AI utilization is expanding across affiliates. Lotte Homeshopping plans to launch fashion and living specialty programs featuring AI influencers. A company representative said, "This aims to increase attention with programs that generate buzz aligned with the launch of new spring fashion products." Lotte Homeshopping added that it plans to continue introducing content reflecting digital technologies and trends across various categories beyond fashion and living.

Lotte Homeshopping launched Lucy Talk Live on the 8th. It is a method that implements Lucy's AI avatar and broadcasts a voice created using text-to-speech (TTS) technology.
[Photo by Lotte Homeshopping]

This policy was catalyzed by the successful launch of the fashion program 'Lucy Talk Live,' featuring the virtual human 'Lucy.' Launched by Lotte Homeshopping on the 8th, Lucy Talk Live implements Lucy's AI avatar and broadcasts a voice synthesized using text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Lotte Homeshopping reported that Lucy conducted about an hour of solo communication with customers without a host, resulting in a fivefold increase in real-time chat messages compared to the same time last week.

Lotte Department Store also unveiled visual images themed 'Wonder Dreams, Spring Discovered in the Heart of the City' in collaboration with AI artist Noel Vandijke the day before. Vandijke is a Dutch artist specializing in abstract painting and AI-based works. Through this AI project with Lotte Department Store, he is recognized for illustrating the journey between human creativity and artificial intelligence at the subtle boundary between dreams and reality.

Lotte Department Store emphasized this as a new attempt to broaden AI utilization in the retail industry. While the retail sector has traditionally used AI technologies in areas such as personalized product recommendation services based on big data, chatbot customer consultations, and logistics transportation platforms, this time the scope has expanded to include visual image production.

Visual image of 'Wonder Dreams, Spring Discovered in the Heart of the City' presented through a collaboration between Lotte Department Store and AI artist Noel Vandice.
[Photo by Lotte Department Store]

Earlier, Daehong Communications released a New Year's Lotte Group advertisement video created using 'generative AI' last month on Lotte Holdings' official YouTube channel. The 30-second advertisement was produced under the theme of 'New Year's Hope.' The video sequentially shows the backs of various people watching the sunrise of the Gapjin year, followed by the copy, 'In 2024, your sun rises anew and wondrously.' The video concludes with a scene of the sun rising over Lotte World Tower.

While there have been previous cases of using images created by generative AI as sources for video advertisements, this is the first time in Korea that AI was used throughout the entire production process of a video advertisement to create a live-action AI film.

Lotte Group is positioning its digital strategy centered on AI as a new growth engine. Earlier, Chairman Shin stated in this year's New Year's address that the era of AI becoming part of everyday life is arriving beyond digital transformation, urging business innovation to embrace the 'AI Transformation' era. At last month's first-half VCM (formerly the Presidents' Meeting), he emphasized, "Do not consider AI merely as a tool for improving work efficiency but regard it as a means to strengthen fundamental competitiveness from the perspective of innovation."

However, within the group, there is a cautious atmosphere regarding overinterpretation of the expanding AI utilization across affiliates.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.