KT’s GiGA Genie will soon offer voice shopping

Users of KT’s GiGA Genie smart speakers will soon be able to shop online with nothing but a voice command.

According to KT on Monday, the mobile carrier has teamed up with Lotte.com, a local online shopping mall operator under Lotte Shopping, to offer an AI-based service that enables customers to search, order and pay for goods via simple voice commands.

Customers will be able to surf through a list of items offered on Lotte.com and in 400 offline Lotte Super branches on KT’s internet protocol TV and pay for the goods directly.

Currently, users that shop using voice commands are still required to log into their mobile phones to verify the purchase. The upgraded service will eliminate the step with the addition of voice verification.

Paying via voice command with a credit card is still not allowed in Korea. However, the new system gets around this by adding the cost of the shopping to a user’s monthly KT subscription fee. The system will be implemented from the first half of next year.

Baek Gyu-tae, head of KT’s service research center, said user verification through Genie’s voice recognition capability is up to an acceptable standard, though it still needs to attain approval from the Fast IDentity Online alliance to make financial transactions possible.

The way items will be displayed on the TV and the purchasing process are also still to be finalized.

Still, KT has vowed that same-day delivery will be possible using its offline Lotte Super stores and the service will offer a more comprehensive range of products than current TV shopping portals.

“GiGA Genie’s shopping service will become a killer service that pioneers a so-called couch shopping culture,” said Lee Phil-jae, head of KT’s GiGA Genie business division. “We will strengthen our service further by expanding collaboration with other retail and franchise subsidiaries under Lotte Group.”

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]