Lee Soo-man Unveils K-Pop Vision for the AI Era: "CT Will Amplify Creativity to Lead Culture"

Lee Soo-man, Key Producer and Visionary Leader at A2O Entertainment, shared his vision for K-pop in the age of AI.

On the 22nd, Lee Soo-man delivered a keynote speech at the ‘26th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference (ISMIR 2025)’ held at the KAIST campus in Daejeon, focusing on the theme 'Culture Technology (CT) in the AI Era'.

ISMIR is a leading academic forum in the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR), focusing on music-related data. In his speech, Lee Soo-man discussed the significance of the convergence of culture and technology in driving K-pop's global growth and the future vision for the music and entertainment industry.

Having first proposed the concept of 'CT' and laid the foundation for the global spread of 'K-Culture,' Lee Soo-man reflected on his innovative journey, stating, "I systematized CT into four stages: casting, training, music production, and marketing. Based on this system, artists such as H.O.T., BoA, TVXQ!, Super Junior, Girls' Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet, NCT, and aespa were born."

Furthermore, emphasizing that Korea should become a 'nation of producers' capable of nurturing producers worldwide as a 'cultural architect,' Lee Soo-man highlighted the role of producers by mentioning key figures in 'K-Culture,' including EJAE, composer of the OST 'Golden' for 'K-pop Demon Hunters' which is creating a global syndrome, as well as J.Y. Park, Teddy, director Bong Joon-ho, and football coach Park Hang-seo.

Highlighting technology as a key driver and partner in K-pop creation, Lee Soo-man introduced various achievements that combine culture and technology, starting with the 3D music videos of Girls' Generation and Super Junior, which first adopted 3D technology in music videos through collaboration with director James Cameron and Samsung Electronics, followed by the world's first hologram concert series, 'V Concert,' 'School of Oz,' AI speakers, and AR music videos.

Recently, he launched Blooming Talk, a chatbot combining Human Talk and AI Talk, enabling 24/7 one-on-one conversations with celebrities, and opened A2O Zone and A2O Channel. Lee Soo-man stated, "Fans can receive economic rewards within the Play2Create model by utilizing these," and added, "The ultimate goal is A2O School, an environment where teenagers can grow into creators using creative tools."

As a new example of CT, he mentioned the filming and editing technology Infinite Studio, developed with 4DV Intelligence. He showcased performance videos of the global girl group A2O MAY, titled 'BOSS' and 'B.B.B,' produced with this technology, receiving amazed reactions and applause from the audience. Infinite Studio, based on Gaussian Splatting technology, is an innovative system capable of generating multi-angle videos from a single performance shoot and won 'Best in Show' at SIGGRAPH, considered the Olympics of computer graphics, in Vancouver, Canada, last August, surpassing NVIDIA and Meta.

Regarding the essence of CT evolving with AI, Lee Soo-man explained, "As AI develops, human creativity will shine even brighter because AI relies on human prompts. CT will amplify this creativity, driving global culture and touching people's hearts."

Meanwhile, A2O MAY, which pioneered the Zalpha Pop genre through Lee Soo-man's production, continues to show strength in the global market, including the US and China. The group has entered the US mainstream radio chart Mediabase TOP 40 for five consecutive weeks, setting the highest record for a group composed solely of Chinese members and as a Chinese female artist. They have also achieved success such as ranking first on QQ Music's new song daily chart in China, and are currently taking pre-orders for their first EP 'PAPARAZZI ARRIVE,' set to be released in October.

Lee Soo-man is recognized as the pioneer of 'Culture Technology (CT),' a concept that significantly contributed to the global spread of K-pop. He is credited with revolutionizing the K-pop landscape by producing numerous successful idol groups including H.O.T., BoA, TVXQ!, Girls' Generation, and EXO. He is currently leading the future entertainment industry by building new content production systems that integrate AI technology.