![Amorepacific's R&I Center Mizium [Amorepacific]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/28/news-p.v1.20260728.1eadabdb47cc4c1fa7a618eab131b538_P1.jpg)
Amorepacific has built a research-focused generative AI platform called "AI Assistant LEMON," drawing on more than 70 years of accumulated R&D assets, the company announced Tuesday.
Amorepacific established South Korea's first cosmetics research laboratory in 1954 and has since built up a vast trove of R&D assets — including ingredient data, formulation records, research reports, patents and academic papers. Those resources had been scattered across multiple systems, however, limiting their usefulness for AI applications.
In response, Amorepacific launched the "Data Highway" project last year in collaboration with KT Corp, led by its in-house AI transformation organization. The two companies jointly designed and developed a platform and AI services built on "AI Ready Data" optimized for AI use. They also constructed an "AI Data Hub" that integrates and standardizes millions of records spanning structured and unstructured data — ingredient data, formulation records and research reports among them.
The resulting research-specialized large language model service, AI Assistant LEMON — short for Lab Efficiency Mode ON — lets researchers search, analyze and apply vast volumes of research data quickly and easily across functions including R&D, production, quality control and regulatory compliance. The system also opens up new possibilities for exploration, discovery and recommendations throughout the research process.
Beta testing with researchers at Amorepacific's R&I Center found that literature and regulatory review tasks during the product-planning stage — previously taking about 12 days — were cut to roughly five minutes. The time needed to review a specific ingredient's research history and assess its potential product applications also fell from about six days to around five minutes.
Amorepacific said the project marks the start of a broader push to transform its research environment. The company plans to expand its digital transformation efforts, including the introduction of AI agents, so researchers can spend less time on repetitive information searches and focus instead on more creative work such as forming new hypotheses and driving technological innovation.
Seo Byung-hwi, chief technology officer and head of Amorepacific's R&I Center, said the project "carries great significance in that Amorepacific is leading the shift to a research environment fit for the AI era." He added: "Going forward, the AI platform will handle repetitive searches and analysis, while researchers will be free to focus on creative questions and innovation."
spa@heraldcorp.com
