AI service specialist ESTsoft (CEO Jeong Sang-won) announced on the 25th that it has signed a business agreement with digital healthcare company Shinhan Q-on (CEO Lee Yong-beom) for the production of AI virtual humans specialized in healthcare and the nurturing and content creation of IPs using them.

Shinhan Q-on, which signed a business agreement with ESTsoft, is a digital healthcare specialist company established by Shinhan Life, the first in the life insurance industry, with a capital of 20 billion won.

With this agreement, ESTsoft is set to expand its AI virtual human business to the healthcare field, in addition to education, news, entertainment, and exhibitions.

The signing ceremony was held at ESTsoft's headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, with the attendance of ESTsoft CEO Jeong Sang-won, Shinhan Q-on CEO Lee Yong-beom, and other representatives from both companies.

At the signing ceremony, the two companies agreed to jointly develop AI virtual humans specialized in healthcare, and to collaborate on IP nurturing and content creation. Specifically, they agreed to create an AI virtual trainer to be introduced in Shinhan Q-on's AI home training app service 'Howfit', and to produce lecture content using it.

Howfit is a service that provides lecture videos and offers feedback on exercise effects by AI recognizing user's movements. Through this business agreement, ESTsoft's AI virtual humans will be combined with Shinhan Q-on's proprietary technology to launch new classes. In addition, both companies have agreed to jointly promote and market the jointly developed AI virtual humans and content, and to actively use their respective platforms such as ESTsoft's ALYac and ALTools, and Howfit for this purpose.

Furthermore, the two companies have agreed to adopt various types of AI virtual humans for which ESTsoft has secured exclusive IP rights to create a wide range of healthcare-related content.

Representative Lee Yong-beom of Shinhan Q-on stated, "Howfit, having completed its recent version upgrade and set to open content by various trainers such as Park Se-ri, Hyojin Choi, H1, and Yang Soo-bin, expects to offer users even richer options with the addition of unprecedented AI virtual trainer content through this business agreement. We will work closely with ESTsoft to quickly introduce related content to the market."

ESTsoft CEO Jeong Sang-won said, "As ESTsoft’s AI virtual human technology is capable of responding in dynamic environments, we will quickly proceed with optimization in the healthcare field to advance the commercialization timeline. In the future, we will actively utilize not only our own developed IP but also various IPs for which ESTsoft has secured exclusive rights, together with Shinhan Q-on, to enhance the usability of AI virtual humans in the healthcare market."

Meanwhile, the virtual human market, which ESTsoft is pursuing as a new AI business, has very high growth potential and is receiving global attention. Global market research firm Emergen Research has also predicted that the global virtual human market will grow to a size of $527.58 billion by 2030.