[Edaily Reporter YU JIN-HEE ] Adtech specialist Wise birds Inc.(273060)(Co-CEOs Kim Jong-won and Choi Ho-jun) posted its highest-ever quarterly operating profit, driven by the effectiveness of its AI-based advertising automation.

Wise birds Inc. announced on the 12th that it recorded consolidated revenue of 13.5 billion won and operating profit of 3.7 billion won in the third quarter. These figures represent sharp increases of 29.6% and 76.0%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

This marks the first time in the company’s history that quarterly operating profit has surpassed the 3 billion won mark. During the same period, the operating profit margin rose by 7.2 percentage points from 20.1% to 27.3%, while consolidated gross revenue increased by 12.2% to 154.6 billion won.

Cumulative performance for the first three quarters of this year also showed a steep upward trend. Cumulative operating profit reached 9.46 billion won, surpassing last year’s full-year operating profit (7.58 billion won) in just three quarters. Cumulative revenue reached 38.06 billion won (operating profit margin of 24.8%), a 26.7% increase year-over-year, while cumulative net income stood at 4.11 billion won, marking a successful turnaround from the net loss of 1.83 billion won recorded in the same period last year.

The primary driver of these strong results is “advertising operations automation through AI.” Profitability was maximized by rapidly applying the company’s proprietary AI solution to its internal advertising operations. Third-quarter revenue from the marketing business reached 5.92 billion won, a 50.4% increase year-over-year, while operating profit jumped 2.4-fold from 840 million won to 1.99 billion won. This means that approximately 58% of the increased revenue was directly converted into operating profit.

In particular, even while maintaining the same advertising budget, the company’s actual revenue grew rapidly, further strengthening its profit structure. While gross revenue on a standalone basis increased by 10.7% to 82.6 billion won, standalone revenue surged by 59.4% to 6.71 billion won. The ratio of revenue to gross sales jumped from 5.64% to 8.12%, and thanks to reduced time spent on creative production and media optimization, revenue contribution per employee (productivity per employee) also rose by 14.8%.

The level of automation in the creative production process is also noteworthy. Wise birds Inc.’s creative AI solution, “Ad-Visor,” automatically generates ad creatives for 11 media channels and 86 specifications within 5 seconds using a single Photoshop (PSD) file.

Choi Ho-jun, CEO of Wise Birds Inc., explained, “The focus of AI investment is shifting from infrastructure development to actual revenue generation,” adding, “The labor-intensive advertising agency industry, where labor costs account for a high proportion of expenses, is an ideal sector for automation, as it allows us to immediately demonstrate AI’s efficiency through quantitative metrics such as advertising performance.”

The AI advertising platform business for external clients has also entered a phase of full-scale revenue generation. Third-quarter revenue from the AI advertising platform reached 790 million won, an 188% increase year-over-year, setting a new quarterly record. This means that in the third quarter—typically considered the off-season for advertising—revenue surpassed that of last year’s fourth quarter (730 million won), which was the peak season. Year-over-year revenue growth rates are also accelerating each quarter: 97% in the first quarter, 181% in the second quarter, and 188% in the third quarter.

The improvement in profitability is even more pronounced. The division’s third-quarter operating profit was 140 million won, marking two consecutive quarters of profitability following the second quarter (85 million won). Compared to the third quarter of last year (a loss of 240 million won), while revenue increased by 520 million won, operating profit improved by 380 million won, demonstrating a leverage effect where 73% of the incremental revenue was converted into profit. Cumulative operating profit for the first three quarters also reached 110 million won, marking a return to profitability compared to the same period last year (a loss of 710 million won).

The AI-based ad automation platform “Nest Ads Manager” integrates an ad server, advertiser management tools, and data analytics solutions into a single platform. Media companies can operate their own ad businesses simply by integrating the Software Development Kit (SDK), and since Wise birds Inc. operates on a commission structure based on a fixed percentage of the media companies’ ad revenue, its profits grow rapidly as the number of integrated media partners increases.

Its subsidiary, Ad Efficiency, also contributed to this growth with its robust performance. In the third quarter, it recorded revenue of 6.82 billion won and operating profit of 2.02 billion won—up 11.2% and 7.9%, respectively, year-over-year—while its gross revenue increased by 13.9% to 71.9 billion won.

Financial soundness also improved. The company redeemed 2.7 billion won worth of convertible bonds (CBs) in two installments in May and August. As a result, net financial expenses for the first through third quarters totaled 4.44 billion won, a 37.3% decrease compared to the same period last year (7.08 billion won).

CEO Choi stated, “The fact that we surpassed last year’s full-year operating profit in just three quarters signifies that we have moved past the investment phase in AI and have entered a stage of generating substantial profits.” He added, “With the addition of fourth-quarter results—which is our peak season—we will be able to comfortably achieve record-breaking annual results this year.”