Naver's artificial intelligence (AI) search has grown sharply. Eight months after launch, it has driven structural changes in how users search and emerged as a key engine behind more than half of the company's advertising business growth.

Naver said on Feb. 10 that AI contributed 55 percent of the 8.8 percent growth rate in total Naver platform advertising revenue in 2025. Fourth-quarter revenue was 31.951 trillion won and operating profit was 610.6 billion won, up 10.7 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. AI-based ad optimisation and automation helped deliver results that exceeded the market growth rate despite an unfavourable advertising market environment.

The structure in which AI accounts for more than half of advertising growth is meaningful because it indicates Naver has secured a virtuous cycle in which the expansion of AI search directly translates into advertising revenue growth. If Naver doubles the scope of AI application this year, AI's contribution to advertising growth is expected to rise further.

The number of long-sentence questions of 15 characters or more doubles; "shift to recognising it as a conversation partner"

AI Briefing has been applied to up to 20 percent of integrated search queries. This means 1 in 5 users receives search results through AI Briefing. Naver focused not on the application ratio but on changes in the search method itself.

Instead of short queries of one or two words, so-called long-tail queries asking questions in long sentences of 15 characters or more increased by more than twofold compared with April last year, the early stage after launch. Clicks on the follow-up question area presented by AI Briefing increased sixfold from launch. After personalisation technology was applied, the follow-up question click-through rate rose an additional 20 percent.

Naver CEO Sooyeon Choi (최수연) said users' time spent staying in the top area where summarised results are presented is also being maintained stably. She said this confirmed users are finding the information provided by AI useful.

Based on these results, Naver will expand the scope of AI Briefing to about twice the current level by the end of this year. It plans to focus on expanding informational areas while broadening the scope to shopping and local areas. The direction is strategic because shopping and local are areas where Naver has strengths and where advertising monetisation is active.

Still, there are concerns that expanding AI search could cannibalise existing search advertising. Fourth-quarter search platform revenue fell 0.5 percent from a year earlier. Choi said the company would closely review various factors, including cannibalisation effects between search and advertising, and flexibly adjust the scope of application.

AdBoost use at about 30 percent; room to grow even by converting existing advertisers

AI helped drive advertising revenue growth through two pillars: improved advertising efficiency and inflows of new advertisers. Through integration of the advertiser centre and an expansion of advertiser-friendly programmes, the number of performance-based advertisers more than doubled as of end-December from a year earlier.

Advertisers using AdBoost Shopping account for about 30 percent of advertisers running shopping search ads. Choi said the potential for expansion is larger. This means 70 percent of existing advertisers have not yet switched to AI-based ads, suggesting there is room for additional growth through conversion of existing advertisers even without inflows of new advertisers.

Naver will test monetisation of AI search from the second half of the year. Choi said it is reviewing ways to naturally blend ads into useful content without disrupting the user's exploration flow. This means developing new ad formats within AI search areas.

Sequential launch from shopping agent to AI Tab; completing search within the platform

Naver will expand the AI search experience in stages. Starting with a shopping agent at the end of February, it will launch an AI Tab in the first half of the year. Choi said the company will sequentially roll out various vertical agents within the year, starting with shopping and expanding to restaurants, places, travel and finance.

AI Tab will link with Naver services such as shopping, places and maps to provide conversational AI search that leads to actions such as purchases, reservations and orders. Choi said AI actively intervenes to support the entire search journey up to the execution stage.

The step-by-step strategy that runs from AI Briefing (information provision) to shopping agent (product recommendation) to AI Tab (action execution) can be interpreted as an intention to complete searches within the Naver platform. It is a structure designed to prevent users from leaving to external sites at the information exploration stage and to have them complete purchases and reservations on Naver.

Lower inference costs also underpinned the expansion strategy. Naver said it cut inference costs by more than 30 percent by unifying GPUs under an integrated operations platform and switching to lighter models. Choi said it has established a foundation for sustainable operation of AI services.

An industry official said Naver's creation of more than half of its advertising growth through AI search is an example that proves it can achieve monetisation at the same time. The official said if it supports action conversion, it is highly likely to make a similar contribution to commerce revenue growth.