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From left: Jung Sung-kwon, head of the AX Service Development Group at LG Uplus; Jung Hye-yoon, head of the Customer Experience (CX) Center; Kevin Cho, chief strategy officer (CSO); Lee Sang-yup, chief technology officer (CTO); Lee Kyo-gu, professor at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology; Jung Joon-sun, professor at KAIST's School of Electrical Engineering; and Cho Dae-gon, professor at Yonsei University's School of Business. /Courtesy of LG Uplus

LG Uplus is joining forces with Seoul National University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Yonsei University to develop next-generation voice artificial intelligence (AI) technology tailored to the Korean language.

LG Uplus announced Monday that it had launched the "K-Voice AI Alliance." The company explained that voice is emerging as a major means of communication between humans and AI as the technology advances. 

Conventional voice AI systems convert speech into text, generate a response and then convert it back into speech. This process can cause delays and unnatural pronunciation.

Recently, however, competition has intensified around voice-to-voice (V2V) technology, which allows AI to understand human speech directly and respond in spoken language.

V2V technology can interpret not only what people say but also their intonation, emotions and conversational context, enabling more natural interactions between humans and AI.

The participating institutions will establish standards for evaluating the performance of Korean-language voice AI and jointly develop a K-Voice engine and related technologies that can be used across various services.

Specifically, Seoul National University will research technologies that enable AI to respond naturally while listening to users.

KAIST will focus on developing technology that allows AI to determine which speaker to respond to when multiple people are engaged in a conversation.

Yonsei University will examine how effectively customers understand explanations provided by voice AI in customer service settings and whether they can complete consultations smoothly.

LG Uplus views voice AI as a core technology for next-generation AI services and is pursuing related technological development and business expansion.

In March, the company unveiled its U+ Voice AI strategy during a keynote address at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026. Since July, it has also been jointly developing network-based voice AI solutions with global telecommunications equipment company Ericsson. 

"Voice is an important means of enabling everyone to use AI easily and naturally," said Lee Sang-yup, LG Uplus' CTO and executive vice president.

"We will strengthen our technological competitiveness to provide customers with new voice AI experiences and help reduce the number of people, including older adults, who are left behind in the AI era."

                                                                                                               Choi In-gyu