SoftBank-backed South Korean financial technology startup Qraft Technologies highlighted the role of artificial intelligence in equity asset allocation, as AI plays a complementary role to boost productivity and efficiency of human's tasks.

An AI engine can pursue above-average returns with the capability to analyze massive amounts of financial data and discover relationships that humans hardly find, according to Qraft Technologies Chief Product Officer Alan Jo at The Korea Herald Biz Forum held at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul on Wednesday.

"AI has been superior to humans in terms of nonlinear regression and detailed massive data verification, and the investing landscape is just the field where the demand to introduce AI is growing," Jo said.

Qraft is an AI solution provider dedicated to actively-managed equity exchange-traded funds. It manages four ETFs, named QRFT, AMOM, NVQ and HDIV, each of which is listed on, and has exposure to, North American stock bourses including the New York Stock Exchange. The combined assets managed by the four products came to $28 million as of September.

Qraft garnered media attention for its exchange-traded fund product, which optimized performance by predicting the losses of certain US stocks, and readjusting the ETF’s stock portfolio in advance and averting losses based on analysis of accumulated data.

Most recently, Qraft's AI stock selection model that powered NVQ was ranked No. 1 in market intelligence firm MorningStar's midcap value peer group category over the one-year period ending in September.

The major task of AI service providers is to explore real-world applications, Jo said, adding that there are massive opportunities as humans will continue to search for ways to streamline menial and repetitive human tasks.

"It is crucial to explore all together the data set, the computing resource algorithm and the way these can be applied in the real world," Jo said.

"It is worth underscoring AI's potential to improve human work efficiency, boost the productivity of it and become scalable, in addition to an AI engine's core performance and analysis capability."

Jo has been dedicated to exploring business opportunities and projects’ feasibility, as well as developing products. Jo earned a bachelor's degree in economics and computer science from Seoul National University.

Founded in 2016, Qraft is boosting its presence with the announcement of its fundraising of $146 million in capital from SoftBank in January.

(consnow@heraldcorp.com)