Hancom, formerly Hangul and Computer, Korea's leading document software company, is transforming itself into an agentic operating system (OS) company in the era of artificial intelligence (AI). The company is also changing its name to "Hancom" for the first time in 36 years to expand into global markets.
Hancom unveiled the blueprint at its strategy presentation "Hancom: The Shift," held in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, on the 19th. "We are closing the chapter written as Hangul and Computer and starting anew as Hancom," said Hancom CEO Kim Yeon-soo. "We have already proven our AI business achievements in numbers, and we are now pursuing a higher vision called 'Sovereign Agentic OS.'" The Sovereign Agentic OS refers to a system that integrates the entire operational process — from agent construction to authentication, permission management, data access, and execution — on a single platform. Hancom is developing the Sovereign Agentic OS with the goal of releasing a beta version in June and launching the official version in the first half of next year.
This transformation is the result of approximately five years of preparation. Starting with the enhancement of "parsing technology" to convert HWP, DOC, and PDF documents into formats AI can understand in 2022, Hancom unveiled "Hancom Assistant," an AI document creation technology, and "Hancompedia," a document-based question-answering solution, in 2024. These features have been sold as packages, and revenue has been generated in earnest since last year. Hancom's revenue on a separate basis was 175.3 billion won last year, up 16.2 billion won from 2024, with the AI package accounting for 54.6 percent (8.9 billion won) of the revenue increase. AI revenue in the first quarter of this year reached 5.2 billion won, accounting for 11.2 percent of total revenue (46.5 billion won).
Hancom cited four competitive strengths: original data technology, a thick customer base of 200,000 clients, AI transformation clinical data, and open AX standard architecture. "OpenDataLoader (ODL) V2.0," an AI data conversion technology that Hancom unveiled as open source in March, ranked first in four major benchmark categories, including reading order, table extraction, and title tag recognition. "Hancom has built a business model (BM) that increases revenue per customer by adding AI packages on top of its 200,000-customer base centered on existing office models," CEO Kim said. "We will build the agentic OS business starting with customers with whom we have built trust."
The company is also targeting global markets. Hancom has signed or is about to sign memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with three European local partners, including in Poland. "There will be an opportunity around June to disclose specific contract details with European partners," Kim said. "About 30 percent of the company's workforce is assigned to agent OS development and planning." The name change will be officially applied after approval at the shareholders' meeting in July.
