KT completes "Data Highway" project, converting decades of R&D assets into AI-ready data
Industry sees AI-ready data infrastructure emerging as a new competitive advantage
The cosmetics industry is accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve research and development (R&D) efficiency, signaling a broader shift toward AI-driven innovation. Instead of relying on researchers' individual experience or searching across multiple disconnected systems, companies are increasingly integrating vast amounts of research data into AI-powered platforms that can significantly shorten product development cycles and enhance responsiveness to global markets.
According to industry sources on July 28, KT has completed the "Data Highway" project for Amorepacific's R&I Center, the company's technology research institute. The initiative integrates the company's R&D data and restructures it into a format optimized for AI applications.
The project is regarded as a significant milestone because it reorganizes more than 70 years of accumulated research assets into an AI-centric data architecture. Rather than simply introducing generative AI, Amorepacific transformed its existing research database into a structure that AI systems can read, interpret, and analyze, laying the foundation for a wide range of future AI services.
The impact is already becoming evident in research operations. A researcher developing cosmetics for overseas markets previously spent anywhere from several days to several weeks searching for essential ingredients, formulation histories, and regulatory information for different countries. With the newly introduced AI agent, the same information can now be retrieved in approximately five minutes.
As part of the project, KT and Amorepacific standardized structured and unstructured data scattered across multiple research systems and redesigned the relationships between datasets. This process converted millions of research records into what the companies describe as "AI Ready Data," enabling AI systems to understand and utilize the information more effectively.
At the center of the platform is a generative AI assistant exclusively for researchers called LEMON (Lab Efficiency Mode ON). Using natural-language queries, researchers can instantly retrieve integrated information from ingredient databases, formulations, experimental results, and research reports.
For example, when asked about a specific formulation, LEMON can identify the raw materials and fragrance components used, retrieve relevant experimental findings, and organize the information into a coherent response. This allows researchers to spend less time navigating multiple databases and more time making informed scientific decisions.
Industry experts believe this type of AI-enabled research capability could become a critical factor in determining the competitiveness of cosmetics companies. Consumer preferences evolve rapidly, while ingredient regulations differ significantly from one country to another, making the ability to quickly develop market-specific products increasingly important. As K-beauty continues its global expansion, AI-powered analysis of regulatory requirements, ingredient information, and local consumer characteristics is expected to become a key source of competitive advantage.
The project also reflects a broader evolution in enterprise AI transformation (AX). Rather than focusing solely on workflow automation, companies are increasingly recognizing that business performance depends on converting internal data into AI-ready assets. Organizing, connecting, and standardizing corporate knowledge is becoming just as important as deploying advanced AI models.
This is particularly relevant for R&D organizations, where valuable information often exists in unstructured formats such as laboratory reports, experimental records, and formulation documents. Conventional databases alone are insufficient for extracting meaningful insights, prompting companies to restructure these assets into AI-compatible formats and develop customized AI agents tailored to their business operations.
The newly established data platform is expected to serve as a long-term data infrastructure rather than a single-purpose AI solution. As Amorepacific continues to develop new AI services and specialized AI agents, the platform will provide a scalable foundation for future innovation while supporting faster, more data-driven product development.
