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NAVER Outlines Vision for AI as a Social Infrastructure at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026

- NAVER CEO Choi Soo-yeon and NAVER Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok lead main session dialogue on “From AI to Society”

- NAVER proposes direction for its “intelligent social infrastructure model” featuring CLOVA CareCall, LINE WORKS, and digital twins

- Choi, NAVER CEO, commits to “connecting society, people, and technology in a more valuable way based on a sovereign AI philosophy”

April 27, 2026

NAVER Corp. (Choi Soo-yeon, NAVER CEO) unveiled its blueprint for AI as a social infrastructure and shared its vision for future cities at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, held in Japan on April 27. Asia’s largest technology conference, SusHi Tech Tokyo gathers global innovators to exchange technologies and ideas for building sustainable urban models.

* SusHi Tech Tokyo: Hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, this technology conference is now in its fourth year. The name stands for “Sustainable High City Tech Tokyo,” focusing on sustainable growth through future technology and urban innovation.

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During the main session, Choi, NAVER Labs CEO Seok Sang-ok, and NAVER CLOUD Executive director Kim Ju-hee took the stage for a 45-minute dialogue themed “From AI to Society (Designing AI as a Social Infrastructure).”

Emphasizing AI’s evolution into an essential infrastructure for daily life, the three speakers shared the technical values NAVER pursues as a platform provider. Choi highlighted NAVER’s position as a technology firm operating massive user-based services, including search and shopping, alongside its proprietary AI models and cloud infrastructure. Building on this foundation, she stressed the social responsibilities that accompany such capabilities.

“NAVER has built its services on the philosophy that innovation always starts with technology and users,” Choi explained. “Guided by this principle, we aim to enhance service competitiveness and contribute to social development through Sovereign AI, a framework rooted in a deep understanding of local users and a respect for their cultures and value systems.”

NAVER also showcased CLOVA CareCall, an AI check-in service gaining traction as a solution for super-aging societies, alongside LINE WORKS, the company’s field-oriented collaboration platform. Powered by HyperCLOVA X, CLOVA CareCall is deployed in municipalities like Izumo City, Japan, to monitor the well-being of elderly residents and serve as an infrastructure for boosting urban disaster resilience during emergencies. Similarly, LINE WORKS is driving the digital transformation of small business owners and field workers through innovative tools like AI-OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

“LINE WORKS is lowering the technological barrier for field workers in digital blind spots through features like Roger, an alternative to analog walkie-talkies, and AI-OCR, which digitizes handwritten documents,” noted Kim. “Fostering these meaningful connections is the core role of intelligent infrastructure in maximizing overall societal efficiency.”

The dialogue also featured in-depth discussions on digital twin and robotics technologies, which bridge the physical world with AI. Framing digital twins as the infrastructure of future cities, Seok highlighted deployment cases in Saudi Arabia and Nagai City, Japan. He further detailed how technologies validated at 1784, NAVER’s second headquarters and the world’s first robot-friendly building, are scaling into real urban environments through global partners such as NTT East, Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC), and New Murabba.

Concluding the dialogue, Choi stated, “AI has transcended its role as a simple technology to become a social infrastructure that sustains our daily lives. At NAVER, we deeply recognize the weight of our social responsibility alongside the scalability of our technology. Moving forward, we will continue seeking the optimal balance to forge more valuable connections among society, people, and technology.” She added, “Through AI, we are committed to delivering innovation to users, growth to small business owners, and the power to protect digital sovereignty to nations.”

SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 runs from April 27 to 29 at Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Koto City, Tokyo, and is expected to draw 60,000 global attendees.