[THE INVESTOR] Internet portal firm Naver will reportedly join the fray for artificial intelligence assistant by rolling out its own voice-recognition smart home system as early as this year.

Naver has been conducting research and development projects in artificial intelligence for years, utilizing its vast amount of data, including linguistic data.

Compared to global AI services developer like Google and Amazon, Naver is considered to have an upper hand in analytic capability for Korean data as it mainly operates its Web search business in Korea.

Korea is one of a few nations that a home-grown search service rules the market and Naver takes up more than 70 percent of the Internet search market, according to market reports.

“It has not been decided yet on which devices the AI systems will be installed, but it will be based on voice recognition technology,” Park Chong-mok, head of Naver’s in-house R&D unit Naver Labs, was quoted by Money Today, an online news outlet, by saying.

Global tech heavyweights have been recently rolled out their own AI assistant devices -- Amazon’s Econ has already hit the market since last year while Google showcased Google Home.

Both of the AI devices by Amazon and Google look like a cylindrical speaker, and some market watchers speculate that the Korean Internet firm will follow suit.

Since having launched a R&D project, dubbed Blue, for future technologies including AI, autonomous cars, and the Internet of Things last year, Naver is ramping up its efforts to find new growth engines by starting a total of 24 new project teams devoted to R&D this year.

Earlier this year, the Pangyo-based company also showcased LAON, a chatbot which communicate with Internet users in human language and show search results.

Park also hinted that the AI assistant could be fitted in any electronic device or even vehicles.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)