Inline AI Co-Founders 이상연, 송주원, 양창식 Interview
Three years since the generative AI revolution began with ChatGPT, using AI in work has become a daily routine.
However, many professionals still struggle with concerns similar to those before the generative AI era.
"I still have to edit the text written by AI."
"It doesn’t fit our company format, so I end up copying and pasting repeatedly."
"Due to security concerns, the company advises against using ChatGPT, making it harder to see the utility of AI."
To address these detailed issues, a Korean startup stepped boldly into the 'document AI' market dominated by giant global corporations.
The startup, called 'Elements', has created a local AI service that automatically generates documents tailored to formats, Inline AI.
The three co-founders of Inline AI, from left to right, 송주원, 이상연, 양창식.
The Eighth Solution Found in a Jeju Pension
What would it feel like not to achieve meaningful results despite changing your startup ideas seven times? Even when faced with stable and attractive options like law school acceptance or employment at a large corporation, many entrepreneurs end up quitting.
The team of Elements, consisting of co-founders 이상연, 송주원, and 양창식, gathered insights from 30 customer interviews at a pension in Jeju to embark on their eighth challenge.
What they discovered was surprisingly simple yet powerful insight.
All office workers follow the same pattern in their work
Information gathering
Processing and structuring information
Creating the final document with structure
"Perplexity was already handling step 1 well, and ChatGPT was sufficient for step 2. But there was no proper player for step 3. People were spending the most time on step 3, which was full of repetitive tasks to the point of questioning 'why am I doing this?'" - 이상연, CEO
Their eighth product, born from relentless analysis of customer interviews, is evoking an enthusiastic response to the extent that early clients plead with them to “not shut down the business”.
We explored how Elements came up with the idea of a 'local AI that automatically writes documents to fit formats' and succeeded in innovative development, along with their founding and development story.
Inline AI Born from Customer Interviews
Q. Hello! Could you briefly introduce your role at Elements?
이상연: Hello, I am 이상연 from Elements. I handle everything aside from development, including UIUX design, product planning, prompt engineering, sales, and marketing.
송주원: I am in charge of backend and AI engineering, working on the AI capabilities at the core of Inline AI. Specifically, I develop a local AI system, a Modular RAG system integrating various data sources, and an AI Agent that operates on these data sources.
양창식: I handle frontend engineering. Inline AI includes really great AI functions, and my role is to create interfaces for users to access these functions as easily and comfortably as possible. Notably, I started from scratch in building a complex word processor.
Q. When did the idea for Inline AI emerge after seven pivots?
이상연: Ideas just weren’t coming, so I worked for a week in Jeju. At a pension in southern Jeju, we compiled in-depth interview results from existing consumers, extracted insights, and freely brainstormed based on this foundation, which led to Inline AI.
Q. Why did you feel
