Can be used not only at home but also outdoors with built-in battery
Five new services added including finance, audien, and English-Korean dictionary

One year after the launch of the artificial intelligence (AI) speaker "NUGU," "NUGU Mini" has been unveiled. By embedding a battery in NUGU, which had been used as a fixed device due to power constraints, and reducing its size by half, portability has been enhanced.

It is not just a size reduction—while it was previously used as a home hub for all family members, it can now be used in individual personal spaces and can also be utilized when away from home. NUGU Mini, equipped with a built-in battery, can be used for 4 hours during music playback. To compensate for the reduced volume resulting from the smaller size, an AUX jack has been added. Manufacturing is handled by iriver, a company specializing in audio equipment. Bluetooth connectivity will be added later.
Five new services have been added to the existing NUGU's offerings, which provide lifestyle convenience services such as music listening, home IoT, schedule management, and weather alerts, as well as life-integrated services such as commerce, IPTV, traffic information, and food delivery orders.

The five new services for NUGU Mini are ▲"Financial Service (Kookmin/Hana Bank)" which enables exchange rate inquiries and financial information provision ▲"Movie Information Service" which allows movie information and reservation ranking inquiries ▲"English-Korean Dictionary Service" which enables English word pronunciation and spelling searches ▲"Audien Service" which allows audiobook browsing and listening ▲Customer sentiment service "I'm Bored" feature.

Customers can use "NUGU" to check the number of waiting customers at bank branches and use advance waiting ticket issuance services, and can check screening information at nearby theaters. Additionally, users can easily check English word pronunciation and spelling through voice while studying.

In particular, the "I'm Bored" feature has been added, which enables bidirectional communication rather than one-way commands or questions. When a customer says "I'm bored" or "play with me," "NUGU" suggests games or quizzes. It responds up to seven times. While user sentiment is not yet considered, personal status and feedback data are being collected, and in the future it is planned to become a form that reflects individual characteristics.

Park Myung-soon, Head of SK Telecom's AI Business Division, stated "In the second half of the year, we will connect with TMap so it can be used in vehicles" and "ultimately, we will develop it into a mobile-form platform that can embed artificial intelligence platforms not only in our own devices but also in existing home appliances such as refrigerators and water purifiers."

NUGU is not simply a speaker, but includes independently developed AI engines and cloud servers capable of processing them. SK Telecom has integrated deep learning into NUGU's voice recognition technology so it evolves as data accumulates. In particular, as customer usage increases, the number of words and sentences the service can understand also increases.

Currently, four wake-up commands—Aria, Rebecca, Tinker Bell, and Crystal—are used, but one additional wake-up command will be added in September. By the time of NUGU's launch last year, voice synthesis technology, which was lacking, has now been secured, and it is anticipated that male voices and voices tailored to various customer needs will also be possible in the future.

The recommended retail price for "NUGU Mini" is 99,000 won, and it will be sold for 49,900 won to commemorate the launch. Starting from the 11th, it can be purchased through the online shopping mall 11st and authorized SK Telecom retailers nationwide.