Naver’s AI-powered search surpasses 20% milestone

Screenshots of Naver's AI Briefing search results / Courtesy of Naver

Naver’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search service, AI Briefing, is rapidly emerging as a core part of the company’s search experience, with its share of total searches recently surpassing the 20 percent mark.

The portal giant shared on Monday that AI Briefing surpassed 20 percent of total searches as of Thursday, achieving the year-end target pledged by CEO Choi Soo-yeon.

“Search queries that include AI Briefing show a higher click-through rate by 8 percentage points, and users spend more than 20 percent longer on those pages,” Choi said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call in August.

“We are expanding AI Briefing primarily for information-focused searches, and plan to roll it out to cover 20 percent of all integrated search queries by the end of the year.”

Naver attributed the growth to the service’s ability to distill large volumes of experience-based information into concise and highly relevant summaries at the top of search results, which drew positive response from users.

Since rolling out the service in June, the company has quickly extended AI Briefing across a range of search categories, from entertainment and sports to finance and public service.

In October, Naver introduced AI Briefing results in health and public service searches, aggregating information from trusted and approved institutions. The company followed in November with tailored results for finance and economics, combining traditional content search with AI Briefing summaries to help users navigate complex financial topics more easily.

According to the company, the scale of its vector indexing, a core component of AI-powered search, expanded by 300 percent this year, enhancing both result quality and content coverage.

Earlier this month, it added the feature to its newly launched entertainment-focused search service, allowing users to quickly grasp trending topics and real-time updates on dramas and TV shows.

In addition, Naver Pay launched a beta service to implement AI Briefing, introducing an AI-powered market summary that compiles and condenses major financial news into real-time stock market briefings. The feature provides three-line summaries and keywords, updated hourly on weekdays.

With public interest in space and astronomy on the rise following the recent launches of the fourth Nuri rocket and Arirang 7 satellite, Naver has expanded specialized search tools in this category.

Users searching for stargazing spots can now see not only locations, but also operating days, entrance fees and parking details, along with photography tips curated from reviews and contributors.

For photography-related queries, AI Briefing surfaces information drawn from professional photographers and influencers’ travel blogs, ranging from guidance on capturing starry skies with specific camera models to beginner-friendly shooting tips.

To ensure reliability, Naver has significantly increased the pool of expert-driven content and refined its search algorithms to prioritize information from reliable and authoritative sources.

Until now, Naver has focused on showcasing AI’s ability to collect, aggregate and summarize information, but starting next year, it plans to fully introduce AI agents that can take actions on behalf of users.

It aims to launch a shopping agent for its Naver store in the first quarter and introduce AI Tab in its integrated search result, powered by its AI agent.