[Edaily Reporter Han Jeon-jin] The battleground in the e-commerce industry is shifting toward a competition to “internalize” artificial intelligence (AI). As early morning and same-day delivery have become commonplace, making it difficult to differentiate solely on speed, companies are now setting their sights on AI as their next strategic move. The trend is to integrate AI across all operations—from recommendation algorithms to advertising, customer service, logistics, and product planning—to boost competitiveness. In essence, AI technology is rapidly replacing delivery services, which have reached a level of standardization.

According to industry sources on the 7th, Kurly and Naver (#NAVER) both made bold moves in the AI arena on the 1st. Kurly announced its acquisition of AI solutions firm Wonji Labs. The deal involves a stock swap, with Wonji Labs becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary on August 4. This marks a shift beyond simply partnering with external firms; Kurly is now acquiring the technology and personnel outright to “internalize its own AI.” Naver also upgraded the AI agent in its shopping app, “Naver Plus Store,” on the same day. The system analyzes a user’s purchase history, saved items, and shopping cart to suggest products before the user even searches.

The scope of AI application in the industry has already moved beyond simple recommendation algorithms. It is spreading across all aspects of operations, from advertising and customer service (CS) to logistics and product planning. Curly, for instance, is currently developing “Creative AI” to automate the creation of advertising banners and product images in collaboration with Wonji Labs, along with an advertising system (DSP) and AI customer service (AICS). Among these, AICS has already been implemented in “Curly 1:1 Inquiries” and is handling approximately 40% of inquiries received on the same day.

The reason companies are staking their survival on AI is the realization that it has become difficult to maintain a competitive edge through delivery alone. Early morning delivery is now offered by Coupang, Kurly, SSG.com, and Oasis, and Naver has also joined the fray by partnering with Kurly to provide early morning and same-day delivery. Even pouring more money into logistics networks has narrowed the difference consumers actually perceive. Ultimately, the battleground has shifted to doing the same work more cheaply and efficiently. Whether it’s logistics routes or customer service, the plan is to use AI to cut costs and optimize operations, then compete with the resources saved.

They are not the only ones diving into AI integration. Musinsa recruited 66 “AI-native” junior developers all at once last March and deployed them to the front lines. This is a strategic move to transform the organization’s very structure into an AI-centric one. Coupang partnered with NVIDIA that same month to build an “AI Factory.” This is an in-house platform that allows developers to quickly build and validate AI models. Through this, the company is expanding the use of AI to areas such as inventory allocation in logistics centers and delivery route optimization. The calculation is to squeeze efficiency out of logistics, which is the most costly aspect of the business. Gmarket’s decision to pour 100 billion won into AI starting this year to revamp personalized recommendations also reflects its determination to find a springboard for recovery in AI.

In fact, there are high expectations that AI will eventually become more than just a cost-cutting tool—it will become a weapon that directly drives revenue. Naver reported that following the introduction of AI agents, both the proportion of repeat buyers and the number of purchases per visitor at Naver Plus Store increased simultaneously. This indicates that as AI refines search and recommendation processes, it is leading to actual purchases. The structure is such that the less consumers have to search for desired products, the more their dwell time and purchase conversion rates rise.

Of course, there are also significant concerns that massive investments could backfire. While securing AI infrastructure and talent requires substantial immediate funding, the ability to recoup those costs through sales is still in the proof-of-concept stage. More fundamentally, there is a threat that as external AI platforms like ChatGPT penetrate the shopping intermediary space, e-commerce companies could lose their “front-end” role of displaying products and running ads, and be pushed into the “back-end” role of merely processing orders. The fact that platforms are rushing to internalize AI is essentially a strategic move to keep consumers within their own ecosystems before ceding ground to external AI.

Seo Yong-gu, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Sookmyung Women’s University, stated, “While the key differentiator used to be the breadth of product offerings, we are now in an era where Kurly’s algorithm competes against Coupang’s algorithm.” He added, “The core issue is who can more precisely read the preferences of each individual customer and accurately match them with the right products.” He added, “Just as Go player Shin Jin-seo opened up a massive lead by playing in a style most similar to AI, the winner in e-commerce will be determined by how well companies leverage AI and integrate it with their existing businesses.”