[AI Revolution](198) Seyong Park, CEO of Ascent AI: "What Remains Unchanged in the AI Era Is Consumer Intent"

Holds 200 Million Korean Search Keyword Data Points
To Launch 'Listening Mind AI' to Support Marketers
Secured 100 Client Companies Domestically and Abroad

"Even in the era of AI, one thing that cannot change is the consumer's intent. Ascent AI possesses 200 million search keyword data points used in Korea. We are preparing to offer services that not only provide insights from data but also enable actionable execution in marketing and planning."

Ascent AI is a consumer data analytics platform company specializing in search data analysis. Search data serves as an indicator of consumers' fundamental and genuine intentions. By analyzing this data, Ascent AI provides companies with insights that help them discover potential customers. The company is preparing to emerge as an AI partner for enterprises, capable of taking over marketers' work in the AI search era. This reflects the growing importance of AI transformation (AX) for businesses and the demand to capture "real customers" funneled by AI.

Seyong Park, CEO of Ascent AI. Ascent AI

Seyong Park, CEO of Ascent AI, previously worked at Cheil Worldwide, Lycos, and served as Chief Marketing Officer at Nexon Japan, before founding Ascent Korea in 2013 to start his business in Korea. In 2023, he launched the "Listening Mind" platform, which analyzes the search data of Koreans, pioneering the field of data-driven marketing. Earlier this year, the company changed its name to Ascent AI. Park said, "Since 2023, we've been integrating AI into our services, but we changed our name to evolve into a company that provides services better suited to the nature of AI," adding, "We will create a new ecosystem with our search data and an agent service that helps execute AI marketing."

It is difficult for companies to understand future consumers' situations or contexts using only their existing customer data. The answer lies in consumers' "search data," which often reflects what they are reluctant to disclose to others. Ascent AI analyzes this data in reverse to provide insights. Park believes that even with generative AI, when you break down search results by "intent," the underlying questions remain the same. He said, "Whether it's a search engine or generative AI, the substance of the questions is the same. We offer insights by reproducing how specific groups search using certain prompts, making it usable for marketing," adding, "We will soon launch the 'Listening Mind AI' service, which assists with planning by generating search ads and even ad storyboards."

The era when brands could be imprinted on consumers solely through TV or outdoor advertising has ended. In the age of AI, marketing strategies must understand the context and intent of consumers and ensure that brands are mentioned through AI. Since 2024, Ascent AI has been conducting AI search-related projects with major domestic ICT companies. Park explained, "AI recognizes the consumer situation embedded in prompts, transforms keywords into coordinates, and finds products or brands in documents similar to those coordinates," adding, "It examines corporate websites, shopping malls, and social comments to check real user reactions before matching and providing answers."

In the AI search era, it has become more important for companies to expose their information more precisely on external platforms. Companies need to supplement their strategies so that answers to consumers' questions are included in content exposed on corporate sites, social media, news articles, and more. For example, if Company A operates a pop-up store, the goal is to encourage visitors to post on social media the very information the company wants to appear in generative AI responses. Park said, "In the past, we worked on projects with department-level leaders responsible for websites or marketing, but recently we are meeting with executives overseeing everything from corporate sites and social media to PR. It is truly the era of integrated marketing," adding, "Although traffic funneled through generative AI remains below 0.5%, there have been cases where the paid conversion rate rose as high as 12%. More client companies are experiencing similar results."

He continued, "The quality of traffic has become more important than the quantity. More companies now realize that failing to prepare could result in losses in the future," adding, "We will focus on enhancing productivity so that companies can spend less time identifying consumer intent and more time developing better products."

Ascent AI has secured 100 client companies, including major corporations in Korea and Japan, and its revenue surpassed 10 billion won last year. The company aims to expand its data coverage beyond Korea, targeting an IPO in 2027. Park said, "In Korea, I believe there is room for about tenfold growth. We plan to secure data from 20 countries by 2030 and will launch services in the UK and Germany within this year. This will also benefit export-oriented companies."

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