Naver is expanding and reorganizing its medical artificial intelligence development organization as the company bets on healthcare as a future growth driver. The move comes after Naver unveiled a medical AI model last year and made multiple acquisitions and investments in healthcare companies, signaling a full-scale push into healthcare commercialization.
According to IT industry sources on the 5th, Naver's Applied AI group recently transferred from Naver Cloud to parent company Naver through an organizational restructuring. The Applied AI group has led Naver's medical AI development, including the creation of "Kmed.ai," a medical large language model unveiled in November last year. The unit has been placed under the Tech Business division, which oversees Naver's healthcare operations. The company is also recruiting AI agent engineers and healthcare AI service backend developers.
The restructuring and hiring reflect Naver's aggressive investment push in healthcare. According to global market research firm Straits Research, the worldwide healthcare AI market is projected to grow from $19.67 billion in 2023 to $183.85 billion in 2032, driven by aging populations and AI technology advances. Naver views medical AI as a growth engine to succeed its search and commerce businesses, establishing the Tech Business division under direct CEO oversight in May last year to strengthen its healthcare operations.
In the second half of last year, Naver invested in clinical trial data platform company J&P Medi and body composition analysis firm InBody, and acquired cloud electronic medical records company Senacle in November. Kmed.ai, the medical LLM co-developed with Seoul National University Hospital, drew attention after scoring an average of 96.4 points on the Korean Medical Licensing Examination last year.
With the integration of its healthcare business division and research organization, Naver is expected to pursue diverse business opportunities using medical AI agents. Specifically, Naver is developing plans for AI agents for medical professionals that support clinical decision-making and summarize and search medical documents, as well as AI agents for general consumers and patients. The company's "Naver Healthcare" platform, launched in October last year, may be utilized in this process. The platform currently offers features including predicted diagnoses based on user symptoms and hospital appointment scheduling.
Regarding the restructuring, a Naver spokesperson said, "The Applied AI group applies AI technology to vertical businesses in the healthcare sector," adding that "the move from Naver Cloud to Naver was part of regular organizational restructuring."
Industry observers note that Naver is building a foundation to secure an early position in the medical AI market. An industry source said, "Naver is accelerating commercialization based on various data including body composition and clinical data," adding that "ensuring regulatory compliance with personal information protection laws and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety guidelines will be crucial in this process."
