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"If foundational LLMs (large language models) serve as the brain that handles overall data processing and linguistic understanding, then the models and algorithms that directly boost performance metrics in the marketing domain are like the arms and legs we have developed and attached ourselves."
Many companies still rely on the intuition and experience of practitioners to decide where and how much to invest their marketing budgets. As channels for customer engagement diversify, marketing decision-making has become increasingly complex. In response, a startup has emerged to solve this problem with an AI agent: Jet AI, which operates 'Blocks,' a CRM (customer relationship management) marketing automation solution.
Lee Ji-hyuk, CEO of Jet AI, first encountered AI technology during his university years and subsequently dropped out of school to pursue entrepreneurship. A graduate of Seoul National University's Department of Economics, he initially focused on consumer purchasing behavior that varies by display method, developing an 'AI Personalized Product Recommendation' solution. After securing 20 early clients and generating revenue, he concluded that expanding the business significantly would be difficult if technology were offered only in API form. Consequently, he pivoted the company's focus from product recommendation to encompass the entire marketing domain, building on existing personalization technologies.
The reason Lee (CEO) focused on the marketing market lay in its scale and technical potential. He stated, "Marketing is a field where AI can directly connect to actual business performance, and it also represents a large market size. We believed that creating an agent capable of performing all marketing tasks—not just optimizing performance—would open up new opportunities."
Blocks processes the entire workflow from crafting ad copy and images to selecting targets and executing actual marketing campaigns through conversational interaction. When marketers input requests for modifications or additions, the system analyzes customer data, adjusts the copy, and presents projected costs and outcomes. Lee (CEO) explained, "From ad planning to the final message sent to customers, the entire marketing process can be established in about three rounds of conversation."
The level of personalization also distinguishes Blocks from existing marketing solutions. Typical marketing solutions generally segment customers into a few groups based on age, gender, purchase history, and other factors, then deliver different messages to each group. Blocks goes one step further by designing messages tailored to each individual customer.
Lee (CEO) stated, "Our goal is to design unique messages for 1 million customers." He elaborated, "By combining basic information such as age and gender with behavioral data within the platform, we determine distinct sending times, message content, and recommended products for each customer. This represents our vision of implementing a level of personalization that humans would find difficult to execute manually through AI."
The company has secured investment four times so far. This year, reaching the break-even point (BEP) is now within sight. Monthly revenue has increased approximately sixfold compared to the beginning of the year. Lee (CEO) remarked, "This is a critical juncture where we are transitioning from growth driven by investment and technology to growth based on direct customer payments." He added, "We aim to create a structure where value generated from customers is reinvested into our technology and business."
The catalyst for business expansion was the demand from clients for in-house development. In Korea, CRM marketing solutions are rarely built internally by companies, except for some major corporations such as Naver, Kakao, and Coupang. Lee (CEO) noted, "Unlike product recommendation, CRM marketing is a domain that is difficult to build independently, which became the turning point for our business expansion."
Capitalizing on this gap, the company is expanding its customer base to include traditional consumer goods brands that lack large-scale data organizations. It is also expected that the accuracy of AI performing actual marketing tasks will improve as more customer data accumulates. Lee (CEO) stated, "If current practical accuracy stands at around 97%, it could rise to 99.5% after six months and reach 99.99% after one year as data continues to accumulate."
Alongside domestic expansion, the company is also pursuing entry into the Japanese market. The strategy prioritizes Asian markets where communication between companies and customers via messaging apps is already familiar. Blocks has completed integration with LINE, which is widely used in Japan, and is currently conducting business discussions with local companies. Additionally, the company plans to expand its operations into Southeast Asia and Latin America, regions where messaging app usage is common and resistance to marketing messages is relatively low.
In the long term, the vision is to expand beyond marketing software to become an agency that performs marketing tasks for enterprises themselves. Lee (CEO) said, "Once AI can reliably handle everything from ad planning to execution and gain human trust, it will be able to perform marketing tasks regardless of location."
In the long term, the company plans to challenge an initial public offering (IPO) based on domestic revenue growth and global expansion. Lee (CEO) stated, "Due to the nature of B2B business, we aim to accumulate performance step by step to increase market value, and then pursue an IPO that enables fundraising based on this foundation."
[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]
in FUTURE
