On May 24, KAIST and DPLANEX held the opening ceremony of the Kyobo-DPLANEX-KAIST (KDK) A.I. Center for Future of Insurance at the Daejeon IT Convergence Building. The KDK A.I. Center is an industry-academia research collaboration center that aims to pioneer innovative AI-based technologies in the rapidly changing insurance industry and give a mid- to long-term perspective on the future of the insurance industry.

DPLANEX, established in December 2021 as a subsidiary of Kyobo Information and Communication, is a data analysis corporation that collects data from Kyobo Life Insurance. It aims to build an integrated data network and provide valuable discoveries through analytical services.

KDK, led by Professor Dae-Shik Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering, involves professors and researchers specializing in technologies such as big data, deep learning, and AI. The center was established to derive practical results from data analysis and present the direction that the insurance industry will take in the future. KDK will carry out a number of research tasks selected by DPLANEX, including those relating to insurance sales management on new digital platforms (e.g. metaverse), predictions of product popularity and risk based on AI, and data-oriented customer management. This year, a project will be carried out to identify the potential customers’ intention to sign up for insurance by analyzing gestures and conversations of their avatars in virtual environments, through which a data network will be built.

Professor Joonhyuk Kang (Head of School of Electrical Engineering), Professor Dae-Shik Kim (Head of the KDK A.I. Center for Future of Insurance), Professor Jiyoung Hwang (from the School of Computing), Beomjin Kim (CEO of DPLANEX), and Jungha Shin (Kyobo Life Group DT Support Manager and DPLANEX digital strategy manager) were among those who attended the opening ceremony. “We are happy to open a research center in collaboration with KAIST, a school with world-class researchers. Kyobo Life Insurance, DPLANEX, and KAIST will all strive to develop through mutual collaboration,” said Beomjin Kim. KDK is expecting a “win-win” outcome that combines the “digital technology abilities” of KAIST and Kyobo Group’s “knowledge of business”. Along with the new establishment, KDK also plans to cultivate digital talent domestically through exchange of human resources and recruitment programs with KAIST.