ESTaid announced on June 29 that it applied "K-EXAONE (EXAONE (LG AI Research))" to the AI search service of the portal Zum. Starting today, Zum will switch the core AI model of its "AI 1-second summary" and "AI issue trend" services to K-EXAONE, a domestic AI model developed by LG AI Research through the Ministry of Science and ICT's independent AI foundation model project. ESTaid, a participant in the LG AI Research consortium, linked K-EXAONE to its own search engine to improve comprehension of Korean writing style and nuance, and noted it cut operating expense by about twofold compared with existing global AI models. The company also improved hallucinations by building a structure where the search engine collects and verifies the latest information and the LLM generates answers based on it. To provide stable service under large traffic conditions, it applied optimization technologies such as embedding caching and parallel processing, and enabled continuous service quality management through an in-house developed embedding metric and an automatic evaluation system. CEO Kim Nam-hyeon stated, "We will create an 'AI for everyone' environment where anyone can naturally experience a domestic AI," and added plans to expand Zum AI search into vertical areas such as shopping, finance, and travel.