How did Korka become an OpenAI Select Partner?

last februarySigned OpenAI Services Partner contractHan Korka was selected as an OpenAI Select Partner with the launch of the OpenAI Partner Network on July 14th! nowCorca’s official profile on the OpenAI Partner NetworkYou can also check out Corca here.

https://openai.com/business/partners/corca/

After joining Korca as an AX consultant in June, I often heard this question from people around me.

“Despite being an early-stage startup, what is the reason behind Corca partnering with OpenAI?

To be honest, I didn't know the answer at first either. Since I knew Corca as a team that helps companies with AX, I just thought that their experience in AX consulting for clients was the main factor. But after asking colleagues, looking at the industry, and digging into Corca’s journey, I found that there was a deeper story. There were too many similar companies in Korea to be selected as a partner just because we were an ‘AX consulting startup.’

The two key factors I found wereOperational know-how accumulated over many years of developing AI products, andAX know-how accumulated by Korka as he transformed into an AI native teamIt was.AX Team Lead Bae Hwi-dongI asked in detail and summarized what I learned.

for many yearsOperational know-how accumulated while developing AI products

The first thing I checked was that Corca was a team that created and operated the product itself before being a company that helped AX.

Korca had already felt the potential of LLM even before the end of 2022, when ChatGPT was released, and was generating significant sales by developing an advertising optimization and recommendation system using AI. After making various attempts, from 2024, with the vision of ‘accelerating scientific research with AI,’ Corca’s current flagship product,Moonlightwas released.

Moonlight is an AI research companion that helps researchers read and understand papers faster and more deeply. We have incorporated into our products the experience of quickly understanding papers by translating and summarizing them, discussing concepts that got stuck while reading the original text, and easily solving complex drawings with the help of an agent. Even within Corca, there was anxiety that the domain might be too narrow, but we were able to focus that much andReal user voicesIt is said that thanks to the improvements made to the product, universities and researchers in many countries are using Moonlight every day. Recently, it is not just about reading papers, but also about things like KCCV.Easily navigate conference papersA function was also added.

However, even after hearing this story, at first I did not immediately understand what relationship Moonlight had with selecting OpenAI partners. However, after listening to Hwidong’s explanation, I finally understood why ‘AI product operation experience’ is essential for organization AX.

“AX is not just an agent replacing your own work. Of course, there are many tasks where running an agent on each computer with Codex Skill and Computer Use is sufficient. However, for agents to play their part in an organization's standardized processes, they need the know-how to control API costs while maintaining quality levels. Creating an agent and actually infiltrating each member’s habits and causing behavioral change are completely different issues, but the experience of integrating AI products into users’ daily lives is also very helpful.”

This is naturally the second key factor.AX know-how accumulated from within CorcaIt continued.

AX know-how accumulated by Korka as he transformed into an AI native team

According to Hwidong, during the communication process with OpenAI, two core strengths, along with Corca's AI product operation capabilities, were evaluated as very impressive.

In-depth practical proficiency in Codex

OpenAI wanted a team that could provide immediate solutions when customers encountered difficulties while introducing Codex, and praised the Corca team for using Codex in depth and fully understanding its mechanisms.
Organizational change management capabilities based on practical experience

Regarding OCM capabilities, which are highly scarce in the market, he said he felt a great sense of depth in the parallel strategy of nurturing bottom-up AX champions and building a top-down AX environment that Corca has been pursuing since last year, as well as the practical confidence that Corca has built by building an AI native organization from within.

When I joined Corca, it was alreadyAX DayThe AX culture within Corca, called the AX Sharing Society, was well established. Pair work occurs routinely, new ideas and product prototypes emerge every week, and learning occurs as everyone shares their own harnesses and know-how.

However, when I realized that these things did not work out well from the beginning, and that they became what they are now through various experiments and trial and error since last year, I saw them again. I thought that this experience of small organizational change would soon lead to confidence in consulting. Hwidong added, ‘There is no right answer in AX.’

“Korka is sincere toward AX, but it absolutely does not mean that what Corka suggests is the right answer and that you have to follow it. In fact, there is no right answer in AX. It is a time of great confusion, with social media saying that the best practice that was heard as ‘crazy’ yesterday is ‘dead’ today. Therefore, the process of creating and developing skills suited to the individual and organizational situation by the hands of organization members, rather than the result of someone else’s work, must be transferred as ‘experience’ rather than the ‘right answer’.”

Select Partner selection news that I finally understand properly

While writing this article, I learned that Korka has continued to connect what it has learned from operating AI products and its own change experience to its clients' AX.

So now the news of Korka's selection as an OpenAI Select Partner doesn't just seem like a badge added to your profile. From products to enabling corporate teams to continue to use AI in their work, Corca, which I saw in the short time I had since joining the company, was a team that had been thinking about both areas together.

If you are curious about Corca’s AX story in more detail and AX acceleration consulting,https://www.corca.ai/axPlease take a look!