[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] It has been confirmed that Naver (NAVER(035420)) has not yet finalized its schedule for this year’s open recruitment of new graduates. This is because the company is thoroughly reevaluating its recruitment criteria and selection methods from the ground up in line with its transition to an artificial intelligence (AI)-centric management system. Analysts suggest that, with the advent of the AI era, the traditional recruitment model—centered on large-scale, regular open recruitment—has reached a crossroads.

According to the IT industry on the 1st, Naver did not issue a recruitment announcement for the first half of this year for “Team Naver New Graduate Recruitment,” an integrated recruitment program for its affiliates that has been in operation since 2023.

Naver had previously maintained a schedule of selecting three-digit numbers of new hires through an announcement in March each year, with new hires joining the company in July. However, no first-half recruitment took place this year, and the second-half recruitment schedule has not yet been finalized.

Currently, the company is only conducting limited recruitment activities, such as ongoing hiring for experienced professionals at some affiliates—including Naver Labs, Naver Cloud, and Naver Webtoon—and project-based internships like the AI Challenge for college students.

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Newly Appointed CHRO Hwang Soon-bae… Overhauling Recruitment for the AI Transition Period

Naver announced that it is completely overhauling the direction and evaluation system for new graduate

recruitment

in line with its

AI

transition.

Hwang Soon-bae, Naver’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), said in a written interview with Edaily, “As AI is rapidly changing the way our organization works and its culture, we are redesigning the ideal candidate profile and evaluation methods suitable for the AI era.” He added, “We are conducting a comprehensive review of our new graduate hiring strategy and plan to disclose specific details as soon as they are finalized.”

This redesign of the recruitment process is also linked to the C-level organizational restructuring in the HR division carried out earlier this year. It is seen as an effort to build a recruitment framework suited to the AI-native era—similar to how the company expanded rolling recruitment during the mobile transition—by refining the recruitment system as part of organizational and HR innovation aligned with an AI-centric management structure.

In line with this, the company is also expanding its project-based internship programs. Following the launch of an AI-based engineering program earlier this year, the company recently recruited participants for a six-week summer internship designed to assess candidates’ AI application and user experience (UX) design capabilities.

However, the company made it clear that the review of its open recruitment schedule does not imply a reduction in hiring. CHRO Hwang stated, “Internships are merely programs that provide on-the-job experience; they are not intended to replace open recruitment,” adding, “We plan to flexibly operate a combination of open recruitment for new graduates, project-based internships, and role-specific hiring while maintaining our commitment to securing top talent.”

First-Ever Surpass of ‘5,000 Employees’… A Test for ‘AI Productivity Innovation’

This restructuring of the recruitment system is also aligned with Naver’s AI-based

productivity

innovation strategy. Driven by business expansion in areas such as search, commerce, and cloud, Naver’s workforce reached 5,047 last year—a 10.1% increase from the previous year—surpassing the 5,000 mark for the first time.

At the regular shareholders’ meeting last March, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon outlined an AI-centric management strategy, stating, “Rather than simply expanding our workforce, we will drive productivity innovation by leveraging AI across all job categories, including development, planning, design, and research.”

Accordingly, Naver’s ideal profile for talent in the AI era is also changing. As the ability to utilize generative AI has become a basic competency, the company plans to place even greater emphasis on evaluating uniquely human strengths such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. CHRO Hwang emphasized, “AI is merely a tool for increasing efficiency; good services emerge from the process of diverse team members solving problems together,” adding, “In the AI era, collaboration skills become a core competitive advantage.”

In fact, according to the company, in the “Challenge Recruitment Track” introduced last year, collaboration and interaction skills demonstrated during project execution were key evaluation factors, rather than AI proficiency.

The industry believes this change will influence hiring practices across the domestic IT sector as a whole. An industry insider noted, “As AI replaces routine tasks, the need for large-scale open recruitment will gradually decrease,” adding, “In the future, we are likely to see an expansion of rolling recruitment focused on highly skilled talent capable of designing workflows using AI and driving cross-organizational collaboration.”