'Data Highway' project awarded last year now complete

Decades of R&D data converted into AI-ready format

AI assistant 'Lemon' supports researchers with data analysis

Amorepacific R&I Center employees try out the AI assistant "Lemon" at its launch event. [KT Corp]
Amorepacific R&I Center employees try out the AI assistant "Lemon" at its launch event. [KT Corp]

KT Corp has partnered with Amorepacific to build an AI-specialized data platform aimed at transforming research and development. The project follows KT Corp's award of the "Data Highway" contract last year and the subsequent data-building initiative.

KT Corp said Tuesday it has completed the Data Highway project — which integrated and redesigned all data held at Amorepacific's R&I Center (research and technology institute) — and has finished building the AI-specialized data platform.

KT Corp won the Data Highway contract in December last year and subsequently signed a strategic partnership with Amorepacific. The two companies have since jointly pursued an AI data infrastructure project to drive R&D innovation.

Through the project, the two companies converted seven decades of accumulated R&D data into an AI-ready format that AI can understand and use, built a natural-language search-based AI assistant called "Lemon" exclusively for researchers, established a framework for rapid data-driven decision-making, and laid the groundwork for a research and development environment capable of expanding future AI services and AI agents.

KT Corp identified AI-ready data as the core of the project. The company said it has created an AI research environment in which researchers can search for needed information in natural language, comprehensively review research data, and make data-driven decisions.

KT Corp and Amorepacific also standardized structured and unstructured data that had been scattered across the research institute, redesigning the architecture so that disparate data could be connected within a single context. The result, they said, is an AI-ready data platform that allows AI to understand and use research information in one pass.

Amorepacific R&I Center employees try out the AI assistant "Lemon" at its launch event. [KT Corp]
Amorepacific R&I Center employees try out the AI assistant "Lemon" at its launch event. [KT Corp]

KT Corp said the platform serves as a shared data repository for multiple AI services, continuously accumulating and managing research data for use by Amorepacific's various future AI services and AI agents.

The two companies also built Lemon, a generative AI assistant designed to support researchers. When a researcher poses a question in natural language, Lemon comprehensively analyzes a range of research data — including ingredient information, formulations, experiment results and research reports — and delivers the relevant findings.

For example, if a researcher asks, "Tell me about the new ingredient information, fragrance composition, and related experiment results for formulation 3321123," Lemon connects the relevant data within a single context and provides a comprehensive review.

Building on the project, the two companies plan to continue expanding AI-ready data and to advance a research environment that various AI services and AI agents can use, sustaining their push for R&D innovation.

"This project was not simply about building an AI service — it is a prime example of AI transformation, converting decades of research assets accumulated by a company into AI-ready data that AI can understand and use," said Noh Hyeong-rae, head of KT Corp's enterprise business division. "Drawing on our experience building this Data Highway, KT Corp will support AI-ready data-based corporate AI transformation across a range of industries."


chami@heraldcorp.com