SK C&C, the internet technology solutions unit of South Korea’s SK Group, is planning to commercialize its Korean-language artificial intelligence computing platform Aibril, based on IBM’s AI-powered cognitive computing system Watson, by as early as June.

The SK company said Monday that it is expecting to officially introduce Aibril to the market sometime in late June or early July, though it has yet to set an exact launch date.

Developed by SK C&C in partnership with IBM, Aibril is designed to offer Watson’s flagship AI computing capabilities in Korean, widening the system’s applications for local clients operating in Korea.

Ahead of its official launch, SK C&C launched a beta version of Aibril in late March, inviting local startups to build new services based on the Korean-language Watson’s API.

Once formally introduced, Aibril is gearing up to bring AI computing to new industries beyond health care and medical diagnosis, which Watson has been mostly focused on.

“With the launch of Aibril, SK C&C aims to continue introducing AI systems to health care as well as new industries including finance, legal affairs, retail and shopping,” an SK C&C official told The Korea Herald.

“We are open to collaboration across all industries as our goal as of now is to create as many use cases of Aibril as possible,” she said.

In Korea, IBM’s Watson for Oncology has been adopted by a handful of provincial hospitals including the Gachon University Gil Medical Center, Pusan National University Hospital, Konyang University Hospital and Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital.

The AI software is designed to study and analyze a patient’s medical records and a vast database of cancer-related research papers to recommend the optimal treatment option for the patient.

On the retail front, IBM partnered with Lotte Group in December 2016 to build a new shopping assistance chatbot using Watson in both offline and online settings.

The two firms are working to build a “smart shopping adviser” -- a chatbot which communicates one-on-one with consumers, guiding them from the product recommendation and purchase stage to delivery and pickup.

The introduction of Aibril and its Korean-language features is set to accelerate the adoption of IBM’s Watson AI software into a wider range of industries here in the future, SK C&C said.

Globally, Watson is currently used by more than 500 global companies around the world including those in the automobile, banking, consumer goods, telecommunications and education sectors.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)