Yanolja is a number one world know-how firm providing complete data-driven providers to reinforce experiences for each journey trade enterprises and vacationers. Yanolja’s cloud-based platform connects over 1.3 million journey corporations throughout 206 international locations, delivering vertical AI providers that enhance effectivity and profitability for companies whereas elevating the standard of experiences for vacationers.
Previous to Yanolja, Junyoung had a distinguished profession at Google, the place he labored for almost 20 years in varied roles, together with Software program Engineer, Engineering Supervisor, and Engineering Director. He was the primary Korean worker at Google globally, and through his tenure, he contributed to quite a few groundbreaking engineering initiatives.
Junyoung’s earlier expertise consists of software program engineering roles at Yahoo and Samsung Electronics, the place he developed and honed his technical experience.
Yanolja is Korea’s main on-line journey company (OTA) which gives all journey and expertise associated providers to make journey snug and pleasant for everybody. Yanolja Cloud is a hospitality options firm specializing in user-friendly and built-in cloud-based applied sciences tailor-made for the hospitality sector, concentrating on prospects worldwide.
You’ve had an unimaginable journey from Google to Yanolja, together with a job in establishing Google Korea. What motivated you to transition from a tech large to a quickly rising firm like Yanolja?
My journey started as the primary Korean native speaker employed at Google HQ in California, the place I later helped arrange Google Korea. Over 20 years at Google, I witnessed how information and know-how can remodel lives and drive significant innovation. But, as impactful as these developments have been, the journey trade had lagged behind in adopting cutting-edge know-how.
Once I met Sujin Lee, Yanolja’s founder, his imaginative and prescient of addressing the inefficiencies and challenges in journey struck a chord. Journey entails dreaming, planning, reserving, and sharing—processes that generate immense quantities of information. Nonetheless, this information has remained largely underutilized. Yanolja’s dedication to leveraging AI and superior information platforms to enhance these experiences was inspiring. It was a singular alternative to hitch an organization on the forefront of reworking a whole trade.
Yanolja’s daring imaginative and prescient, powered by AI and our proprietary information lake, permits us to refine and increase information to create Vertical AI options tailor-made for the journey and hospitality sectors. This strategy not solely enhances operational effectivity but additionally redefines buyer experiences, positioning Yanolja as a world chief in journey tech.
As a pacesetter within the AI house, what classes from Google and your earlier roles have been most impactful in shaping your strategy to driving AI innovation at Yanolja?
Two key classes have formed my strategy. First, know-how must be human-centered. The tempo of innovation usually outstrips folks’s skill to adapt, so intuitive design is important for broader adoption. Second, information is the inspiration of AI. If information is incomplete or flawed, AI outcomes may be inaccurate and even dangerous, very like a toddler performing on deceptive experiences.
At Yanolja, we prioritize information integrity throughout all the journey worth chain. By guaranteeing that the information flowing by way of our programs is correct, we ship safe, clear options for each our B2B companions and finish prospects. That is the place Yanolja’s Vertical AI strategy turns into important—we specialise in AI options tailor-made for the journey trade, driving measurable outcomes that immediately improve profitability and buyer satisfaction.
How has your expertise working throughout completely different international locations and tech ecosystems (South Korea, Silicon Valley) influenced your management fashion and imaginative and prescient for know-how?
At Google in Silicon Valley, I collaborated with groups from world wide on world providers, which taught me the significance of aligning various groups towards a typical aim. At Yanolja, I now lead R&D groups throughout Korea, India, Israel, and Europe, uniting them as “One Yanolja Workforce” to drive innovation and execute initiatives collaboratively.
My Silicon Valley expertise strengthened the necessity to stability short-term enterprise priorities with long-term technological investments. Whereas quick options tackle urgent challenges, sustainable innovation requires foundational work. At Yanolja, we combine information and AI to sort out at the moment’s enterprise wants whereas constructing a platform for future management within the journey tech trade.
How is Yanolja leveraging AI to rework the journey and hospitality trade, significantly in areas like operational effectivity and buyer expertise?
The journey trade has lengthy been gradual to embrace technological change. Many operations in hospitality and reserving are nonetheless handbook or inefficient, limiting each productiveness and potential development. At Yanolja, we’ve launched AI-driven options to handle these gaps.
For instance, our Dynamic Pricing resolution makes use of AI and machine studying (ML) to automate real-time value changes, immediately impacting lodge revenues by changing handbook processes with smarter, data-driven choices. Equally, our AI-powered journey planning providers supply customized itineraries and optimized journey routes, enhancing buyer experiences.
Past these examples, Yanolja applies AI throughout customer support, advertising and marketing, workflow optimization, and product improvement. Our Vertical AI options are tailor-made to fulfill the distinctive wants of journey companies, enabling us to guide the trade’s transformation by creating modern, environment friendly, and customer-centric programs.
Yanolja operates in over 200 international locations. What challenges and alternatives include scaling AI options for such a various world viewers?
Scaling AI options globally requires understanding various market wants whereas leveraging shared insights. For instance, our Dynamic Pricing AI adapts seamlessly to markets like South Africa, India, and Korea utilizing a single mannequin that identifies common pricing patterns from our information lake.
One vital problem is overcoming language obstacles. To deal with this, we’ve developed AI-powered instruments like context-aware picture translations, enabling non-Korean audio system to entry localized content material in English, Japanese and Chinese language. At this time, Yanolja helps over 60 languages, reflecting our dedication to inclusivity and world accessibility.
Yanolja gives an built-in suite of options like cloud PMS, reserving engines, and cost programs. Are you able to share insights into how these programs use AI to reinforce productiveness and personalization?
We’ve built-in AI into our cloud-based lodge administration system (PMS) to streamline operations. As an example, our AI interface permits lodge managers to question duties like room assignments or operational studies conversationally, simplifying advanced processes.
Moreover, AI-powered customer support instruments assist us automate the classification and prioritization of inquiries, lowering response occasions by 40%. These improvements, mixed with our Vertical AI options, guarantee operational effectivity and personalization for all stakeholders.
How does Yanolja’s proprietary Knowledge Lake assist unlock new AI functions, and what position does information high quality play within the success of your options?
AI continues to unlock the potential of underutilized information, reworking on-line journey businesses (OTAs) into hyper-personalized journey brokers and enhancing buyer experiences. Yanolja’s give attention to Vertical AI ensures our options ship measurable impression, setting us aside as leaders within the evolving journey ecosystem.
As we glance forward, we envision AI not simply optimizing journey bookings or itineraries however enabling absolutely built-in, seamless journey experiences. AI-driven insights will empower companies to foretell and meet buyer wants extra successfully, guaranteeing each side of a traveler’s journey is customized and optimized. To realize this, Yanolja is constructing a journey information platform tailor-made for the trade, incorporating connectivity, a single supply of fact through an information lake, and AI/ML-based information applied sciences—all of that are important to sustaining information high quality and unlocking new functions.
What traits do you see shaping the way forward for AI within the journey trade, and the way is Yanolja positioning itself to guide on this house?
AI is poised to revolutionize the journey trade by unlocking the huge potential of underutilized information. Over the subsequent decade, we are going to see a shift from easy reserving platforms to extremely refined, AI-driven brokers that present hyper-personalized journey experiences. These AI brokers won’t solely assist vacationers plan however may even help in real-time decision-making throughout their journey.
At Yanolja, we’re on the forefront of this transformation by specializing in Vertical AI—creating specialised functions that tackle the distinctive challenges of the journey trade. Our data-driven options are already serving to companies optimize operations, personalize providers, and in the end improve buyer satisfaction.
The longer term may even see larger integration of AI throughout all the journey journey, from the second a buyer desires about their journey to after they share their expertise post-trip. We’re positioning ourselves to guide this variation by investing closely in AI capabilities that can proceed to disrupt and redefine how the journey trade operates.
As somebody who constructed and managed groups at Google Korea and now Yanolja, what recommendation do you may have for fostering innovation and collaboration in tech groups?
Initially, it’s vital to have a transparent and sustainable imaginative and prescient and mission for what we intention to attain with know-how. Every individual brings distinctive strengths to the desk. Nonetheless, irrespective of how gifted a gaggle of individuals is, if they aren’t aligned of their route, they threat falling behind within the quickly altering exterior atmosphere of the AI period. I imagine that what’s wanted at the moment will not be one genius who can’t collaborate, however a group of 10 people with distinctive teamwork. It’s about taking 10 items of wooden—every completely different in form, measurement, and coloration—and turning them into a singular masterpiece. The last word aim is to create one thing that improves the lives of individuals world wide. This, I imagine, is the position of tech groups within the AI period.
The place do you see Yanolja within the subsequent 5–10 years, significantly in its quest to change into a world chief in journey know-how?
Leaving a well-established firm in Silicon Valley to hitch Yanolja was pushed by my aim to disrupt the journey trade globally as a tech firm, leveraging information. That course of is already underway, and the tempo is accelerating. On the core of this transformation is AI. Innovation by way of know-how is reshaping the world, and as a tech govt, it’s my position and duty to make sure that AI-driven options create providers that meet buyer wants and in the end drive Yanolja’s success.
Wanting forward, Yanolja goals to be the inspiration for world journey innovation, leveraging our Vertical AI capabilities to construct a unified, environment friendly journey ecosystem. Over the subsequent decade, we envision our AI-driven options not solely enhancing operational efficiencies but additionally creating totally new methods for companies and shoppers to expertise journey, disrupting the trade in methods we’ve solely simply begun to discover.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Yanolja or Yanolja Cloud.
