Officials from domestic ICT (Information and Communication Technology) companies, who visited Micros..

Officials from domestic ICT (Information and Communication Technology) companies, who visited Microsoft's annual technology conference "MS Ignite 2024" held in Chicago last month, said, "We were worried that the Korean IT industry might go through a 'lost decade' from AI." A senior AI executive at a company said, "I was once surprised by the technology of the U.S. that autonomous AI agents entered the commercialization stage, and I was even more surprised that Japanese companies, which were considered one step below, are rapidly incorporating AI regardless of industry."

As overseas big tech companies are speeding up their expansion of the AI ecosystem, native AI companies are facing a crisis of helplessly giving up the market. It is basic to pour trillions of won in funds to widen the technology gap, and as a series of global companies come up with services optimized for domestic situations, the place for native AI to stand even in the home market is getting narrower.

According to the IT industry on the 11th, Microsoft is expected to acquire the Cloud Service Security Certification (CSAP) "Ha" grade from the Korean government for the first time among overseas big tech companies, and Google and Amazon Web Service (AWS) are also expected to acquire the certification starting early next year. Currently, Google and AWS' CSAP screening is in the final stages, and competition between foreign countries and native countries in the domestic public cloud market is expected to begin in earnest as early as the first quarter of next year. The domestic private cloud market is already dominated by foreign companies such as MS Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), led by AWS. Instead, foreign countries were not allowed to enter the public due to regulations related to security, but the government recently allowed foreign countries to enter only some areas of public cloud transition.

In particular, as OpenAI recently signed a long-term cooperative relationship with the Korea Development Bank to innovate the domestic AI industry, the offensive of foreign countries is intensifying. In the case of OpenAI, Japan is considered the main market in the Asia-Pacific region, but it is understood that it is considering establishing a Korean office after next year based on the domestic regulatory situation.

It is native AI that has fallen on the top of the foot. Naver is a representative place. Naver is believed to be agonizing over its strategy to expand the B2B market based on its own ultra-large AI 'HyperClova X'. Although it has been selling as a "domestic model" that fits domestic sentiment and norms by advocating "Sovereign AI," there is a growing demand for a "multi-model" in terms of lowering costs and increasing efficiency in corporate customer groups.

Currently, Naver only adopts its own model in the B2B service area. In contrast, Amazon, MS, and Google are encouraging the use of third-party AI models such as OpenAI, Meta, and Enthrope. Some even predict that Naver may change its AI strategy starting next year. An industry official said, "Naver is actively targeting niche markets in areas that are legally restricted from entering foreign countries, such as public and financial sectors and semiconductors, which are extremely sensitive to security," but added, "However, it will be difficult to rule out multi-models if the impact of NAVER Cloud sales is visible at a time when AI adoption is rapidly taking place across all industries."

In fact, it is believed that Naver and Naver Cloud internally have conflicting opinions that the direction should be changed to meet the demand of corporate customers who want flexible business improvement in various AI models and that the existing strategy should be adhered to.

In response, NAVER Cloud responded, "There may be many opinions from within, but at this point, it is a priority to expand the market in line with the direction of the business that only takes its own model Hyperclova X."

Against this backdrop, KT is working with Microsoft early on to prepare a domestic AI cloud management service (MSP) line with the goal of launching the business as early as the first half of next year. SK Telecom is developing specialized models for major overseas AI companies such as Anthropic and other industries. Kakao is focusing on internalizing AI in its services first, putting its own model development as a priority.

"The perception that only domestic IT companies can make Korean models and services is no longer working in the market," a senior industry official said. "However, from the perspective of national preparation such as security in the mid- to long-term, it is time for intensive tweezers support to domestic companies that are pushing for Sovereign AI like Naver."