Kim Tae-hoon, Executive Vice President of Minish Technology, has spent 26 years leading the transformation of technology into revenue—not from a conference room, but on the front lines. He has served on Daum’s New Business Task Force, at SK Telecom, at the LG Business Research Institute, and as Executive Vice President and Head of the Advertising & Commerce Business Unit at LG Uplus.
To share his insights, Executive Vice President Kim recently published a new book titled *What Customers Really Want in the Age of AI*.
“Customers don’t want the name or title of a technology like AI; they want the results they need and confidence in their choices,” he said. “Technology only translates into revenue when it is embedded in services to alleviate customer anxiety, rather than being paraded as a showpiece.” The following is a Q&A.
What inspired you to write this book?
“When I was Head of the Advertising Business Unit (Senior Managing Director) at LG Uplus, I introduced AI, ran about 2,500 proof-of-concept (PoC) tests, and continuously attempted to pivot the business.
However, we kept failing, and it was difficult to even figure out what was going wrong. I thought deeply about why mistakes kept happening despite the technology itself being excellent.
The problem wasn’t the technology itself, but rather the way we measured it—and the lack of a process that allowed us to quickly abandon a project or return to the drawing board when problems arose.
So I began to change our processes, and as a result, we achieved very meaningful results—such as a 400% increase in revenue for the projects we were working on. I codified and systematized these processes and insights, compiling them into a book.”
What sets this book apart from other books on AI?
“Most AI books on the market are trend-focused. With trend-focused books, the situation changes just a month after they’re published, causing their relevance to fade rapidly.
In contrast, my book covers ‘corporate application methodologies’ and ‘the essence of business’—concepts that remain constant no matter how much technology advances or changes. The essence of business is to satisfy customers and earn their choice.
To achieve this, you must first clearly define your goals and establish the leading indicators that will drive them. Then, you need to set up the data and action items necessary to create a virtuous cycle where the business runs on its own.
These processes are fundamental principles that have nothing to do with technology. While there are many books that discuss technology, what truly sets my book apart is that it draws on real-world experience that has directly proven these principles in the field.”
What kind of readers would enjoy this book?
“This book is for those looking to apply AI technology to marketing and advertising. Secondarily, it’s for professionals who want to implement AI technology within their companies to drive actual ‘purchase conversions’ and generate revenue.
This is not a book that merely deals with abstract concepts or theories; rather, I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a practical ‘90-Day Action Playbook’—one that can be directly implemented in their day-to-day work and ultimately drive revenue.”
The book is titled * <: What Customers Really Want in the Age of AI* (>). So, what do customers “really” want in the age of AI?
“Customers don’t want the ‘AI’ technology itself or titles like ‘AI Search’ or ‘AI Recommendations’ plastered all over a service. In fact, this can fuel resentment and anxiety, making them think, ‘I guess AI is just taking even more of my personal information and data.’
What customers really want isn’t the word ‘AI’—it’s confidence in the results and choices that are right for them.
In the past, when Amazon sold shoes and advertised ‘one month of free shipping, no questions asked, and 100% free returns,’ the purchase rate jumped by as much as 90%. This was because the return guarantee completely eliminated anxiety about making a bad purchase and gave customers confidence.
In this way, accurately predicting customer needs with AI while simultaneously eliminating their anxieties to instill confidence is the core of what customers truly want in the AI era.”
Do you think Google’s AI strategy is also in line with this?
“That’s right. What Google really excels at isn’t flaunting the ‘Gemini’ AI technology itself. Instead, it employs a strategy of seamlessly integrating AI into its existing ecosystem and workflows—such as Google Search, Gmail, and Docs. This means there’s no need to make a big deal out of the technology’s name to customers.
Rather than highlighting ‘AI technology’ at the forefront of our services, we should use AI to analyze customers’ sensitivities—for example, by offering reassuring messages—or by precisely targeting customers who won’t be swayed by a 10% discount but will respond to a 15% discount, and providing them with personalized benefits.
The core of Google’s strategy—and the direction we must follow—is to ensure that AI naturally permeates the customer experience, delivering tangible results and instilling confidence, rather than simply highlighting the technology’s name.”
What is the “one-page decision brief” that you emphasized in the book?
“It refers to a one-page decision-making document that uses AI to automate key business metrics and consolidates that information so it can be viewed and assessed at a glance.
It enables decision-makers to immediately grasp the current situation and make judgments simply by looking at this single-page summary of metrics, without having to request data or wait for reports from each team member individually.
It condenses the key metrics for decision-making down to about three and clearly states the task at hand in a single sentence, allowing the decision-maker to focus solely on making the decision.
This eliminates the need for weekly meetings where time is wasted simply reviewing data. The speed of decision-making and execution becomes incomparably faster. By reviewing these metrics daily, you’ll also develop an instinct for predicting sales performance in advance.”
What are some things we can do right away when it comes to AI?
“As Professor Kim Dae-sik of KAIST said, ‘Is there some special method to learning how to ride a bike? You just have to try it yourself.’ That’s the mindset you need. When you actually try using AI, you’ll find it’s nothing special and much easier than you expected—you’ll end up thinking, ‘Wow, this actually works?’
So, don’t just stop at simply exchanging questions with the AI; instead, try throwing in the challenges you’ve been pondering or the things you’ve wanted to create, and take the initiative to actually build something.”
If you were to offer advice to people who feel job insecurity or a vague sense of anxiety about the future because of AI.
I really want to emphasize this: “Work as hard as you can on the tasks assigned to you.” If you work deeply and diligently on your tasks, you will inevitably encounter “bottlenecks” in your work that cannot be overcome by human effort alone.
If you gain experience resolving those bottlenecks with the help of AI, your performance will increase not just twofold, but tenfold or more. Going through this process will deepen your domain knowledge and improve your performance, which in turn will increase your engagement and enjoyment of your work, leading you into a powerful virtuous cycle where you use AI to resolve yet another bottleneck.
Ultimately, the key lies in working diligently at your job.”
