Ask About the Weather During a Call, and AI Answers... LG Uplus Unveils 'IXIO AI Assistant'

Say "Hey IXI" During a Call to Activate the AI Assistant
AI Provides Real-Time Information, Shared with Call Participants
Collaboration with Google Cloud... Utilizing Gemini LLM
Advancing Toward 'Actionable AI' Capable of Making Reservations

LG Uplus has unveiled the 'IXIO AI Assistant,' an AI agent service based on artificial intelligence (AI) that can be used even during calls. Developed in collaboration with Google Cloud, this feature is characterized by the AI's ability to understand the context of the user's call and provide necessary information, with the goal of ushering in a full-fledged era of 'customer-tailored AI.'

Lee Jaewon, Executive Vice President and Head of Consumer Business at LG Uplus, introduced the AI assistant feature at a press conference held in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of November 13. He stated, "Over the past year, IXIO has provided reassurance to customers and proven the practical value of AI. Now, it will rapidly evolve into a tailored AI that saves customers time and supports a more convenient life."

LG Uplus has unveiled 'Iksio AI Assistant,' an AI agent service based on artificial intelligence (AI) that can be used even during phone calls. A LG Uplus model is introducing the Iksio AI Assistant. Provided by LG Uplus

The event was attended by Executive Vice President Lee, Karen Teo, Vice President of Platforms & Devices Partnerships for Asia Pacific at Google, and representatives from both companies.

The IXIO AI Assistant understands the context of conversations in real time during calls and provides relevant information. When customers using the IXIO app say "Hey, IXI" or press the call button during a call, the AI joins the conversation and searches for information. For example, if a user is making weekend plans with a friend and asks, "Hey IXI, what's the weather like this weekend?" the AI will search for the weather information and relay the results by voice. The information provided by the AI can also be heard by the person on the other end of the call.

Customer privacy was also considered in the process of using the AI assistant. The IXIO AI Assistant employs 'on-device' speech recognition (STT) technology, which processes information within the smartphone without passing through a server. Call content is not sent to the server prior to invoking the AI assistant; only the user's spoken queries after activation are used for AI search.

LG Uplus partnered with Google Cloud to develop the AI assistant feature. The IXIO AI Assistant was developed using Google’s latest large language model (LLM), 'Gemini 2.5 Flash Live.' By leveraging this model, ultra-low latency streaming AI is applied, allowing the AI to understand the intent of questions and provide answers without interrupting the flow of conversation. In addition, the information provided by the AI is cross-verified with Google Search data to enhance accuracy. LG Uplus has also integrated its own on-device language and classification models with the Gemini model’s contextual understanding technology to implement AI conversation search based on call history.

Going forward, LG Uplus plans to expand the feature into an 'actionable AI' that can immediately execute tasks such as scheduling, location searches, and reservations mentioned during calls, based on its collaboration with Google Cloud. The goal is to enhance customer convenience by connecting the AI's understanding of conversations to real-world actions, such as making restaurant reservations.

LG Uplus will operate a beta service of the AI assistant feature for select customers until the end of this year, with plans to expand it to all customers in the first half of next year. In addition, the company will actively pursue a 'custom intelligence' strategy centered on the AI assistant, which is the core function of IXIO 2.0, focusing on customer convenience. Custom intelligence is the second phase of the 4A Intelligence strategy that LG Uplus unveiled at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 earlier this year, aiming to introduce AI focused on customer convenience.

Karen Teo, Vice President of Platforms & Devices Partnerships for Asia Pacific at Google, emphasized, "Our collaboration with LG Uplus is proof of what two companies with a shared vision can achieve when they join forces. This is a deep and strategic alliance that goes beyond a single product, encompassing consumers, businesses, and infrastructure sectors."

Executive Vice President Lee added, "Through AI services that understand me and make my daily life more convenient, we will deliver the value of our brand philosophy, 'Simply U+,' which aims to provide a simple and comfortable everyday life for all customers. We will continue to enhance our AI competitiveness so that customers can experience the benefits of simple AI through IXIO."

LG Uplus' IXIO Advancement Roadmap. Provided by LG Uplus

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