NCSOFT Corp., a leading South Korean game developer and publisher, is extending its artificial intelligence ambitions beyond gaming and into fashion.
The company’s AI subsidiary, NC AI, said Wednesday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Fashion Group Hyungji Co., a leading Korean apparel maker, to deploy its fashion-focused AI platform, VARCO Art Fashion, across Hyungji’s design, sales and marketing operations.
The system uses generative AI trained on industry language and design data to create product drafts, model shots and marketing visuals.
It also enables fabric changes, 2D-to-3D design conversion, virtual fitting and background synthesis, allowing brands to preview products before production and streamline their creative process.
Spun off from NCSOFT earlier this year, NC AI is expanding its technology, which is refined through non-player character dialogue, image generation and voice synthesis in games, to industries such as fashion, retail and entertainment.
The unit has already supplied its VARCO solutions to domestic brands, including F&F Co., operator of the MLB and Discovery Expedition labels, and Shinsegae International Inc.. It is also in talks with about 10 additional companies, the company said.
“The partnership will accelerate the fashion industry’s AI transformation and help strengthen its global competitiveness,” said Lee Joon-soo, NC AI’s chief product officer.
Parent company NCSOFT has been ramping up its AI push across business lines.
NC AI’s spinoff was part of its AI ambitions to foster its AI technologies into global intellectual property. NC AI is one of the four new units, overseeing AI development for game applications.
In August, the parent announced plans to establish a mobile casual games division and develop new titles leveraging its AI and data science capabilities to enhance global competitiveness.
That same month, NC AI was selected as one of five tech firms to lead Korea’s flagship sovereign AI initiative, part of Seoul’s effort to build large-scale language models independent of US tech giants such as OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT.
By Jeong-Hoon An
Ajh6321@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
