Ditonic eyes US smart retail market on K-beauty wave, CJ Olive Young partnership

Ditonic, an AI platform company, is pushing into the US smart retail market, drawing on its digital transformation (DX) and AI transformation (AX) collaboration with CJ Olive Young.

Ditonic said Tuesday it is helping build the digital infrastructure for CJ Olive Young's US stores and supporting the rollout of electronic shelf labels, establishing a service track record in the North American retail market.

CJ Olive Young has opened a store in Pasadena, California, and more recently launched another location at Westfield Century City, a premium retail destination in Los Angeles. The Century City store drew strong local interest from the moment it opened, with lines stretching more than 100 meters from early morning on its first day.

Ditonic has partnered with CJ Olive Young since 2023 and currently supports DX operations across all of the retailer's domestic company-owned stores. The company said the collaboration has improved on-site operational efficiency and store stability while contributing to a higher return on investment for CJ Olive Young's retail DX efforts.

Ditonic integrates and analyzes a range of data — including visitor movement and behavioral data, weather conditions and foot traffic — through its proprietary AI data platform. It is also developing and commercializing AI agents for retail AX on a phased basis.

In May, Ditonic registered two core technology patents applicable to corporate AX processes, advancing its technical capabilities. The patents cover a technology that recognizes user intent and automatically designs ontology-based data processing workflows, and a technology that uses a hierarchical spatial index to link heterogeneous accelerators and process queries in parallel.

The first technology focuses on having AI generate optimal workflows based on a user's goals and intent, reducing the burden on specialists who would otherwise need to design data processing pipelines manually. The second links diverse hardware accelerators — including GPUs and field-programmable gate arrays — to boost processing speeds for large-scale data workloads.

Ditonic is also expanding overseas. Its Vietnamese subsidiary, Ditonic Vina, signed a contract last month with Vietnamese retail company THISO Retail and is now carrying out a DX project for E-mart's stores in Vietnam, supporting system integration and digital upgrades for large-format retail environments where pricing, promotions and inventory information change frequently.

In the Middle East, the company has been working with a major local retailer. It was recently selected for Cohort II, a global AI accelerator program run by Presight, a listed company under G42, a UAE-based AI technology group.

Ditonic was spun off from Hyundai Motor Company in 2014. Built around its core solution D.Hub, the company converts data from public institutions and enterprises — combined with operational experience and judgment criteria accumulated in the field — into a knowledge framework that AI can use. It currently focuses its AX business on urban, defense, retail and manufacturing sectors, and is expanding internationally with footholds in the United States, Japan, UAE and Vietnam.

"The reliability and data technology we have proven in Korea is translating into a string of business achievements and joint market entries in global markets including the United States, Vietnam and the Middle East," said Jeon Yong-ju, chief executive of Ditonic. "We will continue to advance our AI data-based platform to establish ourselves as a leader in retail AX and DX."