Studio Lab: "We Are Redesigning the Commerce Content Experience with AI and Robotics
Studio Lab: "We Are Redesigning the Commerce Content Experience with AI and Robotics
Posted December. 16, 2025 14:20,
Updated December. 16, 2025 14:49
- Studio Lab is transforming e-commerce content creation by integrating AI and robotics, enabling automated product photography and instant generation of detailed product pages, which significantly reduces time and complexity for brands.
- Their Gency platform combines SaaS solutions and robotics to deliver highly complete, customizable results, earning global recognition and facilitating expansion into overseas markets.
- Supported by the SBA, Studio Lab aims to become an end-to-end commerce solution partner, helping small merchants and brands grow efficiently in the digital age.
According to Statistics Korea, South Korea’s domestic online shopping (e-commerce) transaction value reached approximately KRW 242 trillion (approx. $179.3 billion) in 2024, marking a 5.8% increase year-over-year. The global market is also experiencing robust growth. Data from market research firm Precedence Research projects the market will expand from about $18.77 trillion in 2024 to $28.70 trillion by 2027.
The explosive growth of online shopping has amplified the importance of content creation. Consumers often decide whether to purchase based on a single photograph or a short descriptive phrase within the content. The commerce industry invests significant time and money in this process. Business Research Insights estimates that the global content marketing market will surge from $600 billion in 2024 to $1.95 trillion by 2032.
The content creation process is inherently complex. For a fashion brand or a small business owner to list a single product online, they must navigate a variety of steps: model scouting, photography, photo retouching, copywriting, and design layout. Selling just one item requires the combined expertise of designers, photographers, and merchandise planners. This content bottleneck is widely regarded as a significant pain point in the commerce market.
Studio Lab has garnered attention by directly addressing the commerce market's pain points using AI and robotics. Their proprietary shooting robot recognizes product features and automatically frames the shot, while AI instantly generates detailed product pages that match the brand’s aesthetic. By attracting major fashion brands as clients, Studio Lab has successfully validated its value proposition.
How is Studio Lab transforming the e-commerce landscape? We sat down with Jae-young Lee, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Studio Lab, to discuss their technology and future goals.
Solving the Commerce Content Creation Conundrum
“I often discussed with CEO Sung-hoon Kang how large corporations spend time on procedural tasks, while startups live for the future by focusing on problems that need solving immediately,” Lee began. “We shared a consensus that we needed to live that future-forward way. I believe that alignment was the catalyst for founding Studio Lab.”
Lee and Kang first met at Samsung Electronics. The decisive factor in their commitment to entrepreneurship was the certainty that they had a 'good partner.' A strong market and an excellent item are useless without the right people to execute the vision. Lee explained that he trusted Kang’s global marketing experience, his critical perspective on the unreasonable margin structure of the content market, and his decisive leadership.
The two focused on the commerce content market. The period coincided with the surge in online fashion as non-contact shopping became normalized during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they identified that the time, cost, and complex processes involved in content creation were a substantial burden for brands.
Listening closely to the needs of the industry, Lee turned to AI. He predicted that automating complex and repetitive tasks with AI would dramatically increase work efficiency. They quickly moved to adopt the technology, even before the public popularized ChatGPT. “When we were developing, OpenAI was releasing GPT-3,” Lee recalled. “Generative AI was not yet a concept that resonated with people. That’s why we believed we had to enter the market faster than anyone else.”
'Gency': Redesigning the Commerce Content Experience
Studio Lab revamped its services. Seller Canvas, their detailed product page automation solution, was renamed Gency (short for AI Agency). Photobot, the robot shooting solution, became Gency PB, and the automated shooting space platform was branded Gency Studio. This consolidation under the Gency brand reflects a vision to redesign the entire brand experience, not just serve as a content automation tool.
Gency is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for creating product information pages. When a product image is uploaded, Vision AI and Generative AI automatically analyze the image and produce the product information page. It assesses the product's design and features to automatically compose product descriptions and promotional copy. The task of creating a detailed product page, which once took several hours, can be completed in about 30 seconds. The platform can also generate customized pages simply by entering keywords.
Gency PB is an automated photography solution. AI analyzes the subject, model pose, composition, and background to capture photos ready for a detailed page. It can even control shooting parameters like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed based on the ambient studio lighting. Studio Lab has highly refined Gency PB for on-site customization. In constrained shooting spaces, the robot can recognize the subject, adjust the zoom, and automatically rotate the manne
quin to find the optimal angle.
Gency Studio focuses on innovation in the physical shooting space. It combines robot control technology with Visual Effects (VFX), allowing users to freely change backgrounds during a shoot. According to Lee, this technology enables the creation of high-quality, magazine-like results even in small spaces.
The company also shifted its development focus from mere speed and efficiency to enhancing completeness. This change was driven by feedback that incomplete AI results still required human intervention, ultimately increasing the workload. “We received feedback that many AI-generated outputs were unfinished,” Lee said. “To solve this, we realized we must deliver highly complete results. In the age of AI, producing results at a 90% level is achievable by anyone. The process of moving from 90% to 95%, and then from 95% to 97%, is the most crucial.”
A Partner for Brand Birth and Growth, Not Just a Tool
Studio Lab’s AI and robotics technology has earned global recognition, notably winning the CES 2024 Best of Innovation Award, drawing attention from the worldwide industry. Buoyed by this confidence, Studio Lab is preparing for overseas market entry. A quantum leap in the commerce content market necessitates targeting the global stage.
The company will first test the waters in the U.S. and Japanese markets. However, breaking into new territories with limited resources and without local networks and pipelines presents a formidable challenge for any startup.
To overcome these hurdles, Studio Lab is leveraging participation in international exhibitions and utilizing global expansion programs offered by public organizations. Their participation in the 2025 Seoul AI Robot Show in October 2025 was aimed at meeting industry stakeholders both domestically and internationally. “Gency is a service that combines robotics and AI, so we were strongly motivated to raise awareness,” Lee explained. Following the show, industry professionals showed keen interest, and discussions on collaboration are underway with several companies.
The support from the Seoul Business Agency (SBA) has played a pivotal role in Studio Lab’s growth. The SBA directly invested in the company, recognizing its growth potential, which helped enhance the completeness of their AI solutions and hardware equipment. Furthermore, the Robot R&D Support Program facilitated the advancement of Gency PB’s features. The Small Merchant AX (AI Transformation) Support Program helped expand the technical reach of Studio Lab. A planned testbed project at Seoul Sky is expected to be an opportunity to achieve both technical validation and revenue growth.
Regarding the SBA support, Lee stated, “All of the SBA’s assistance led to meaningful outcomes. Studio Lab started with a strong mission to help small merchants with commerce content creation. I believe these various support programs helped us rekindle our initial entrepreneurial spirit.”
Studio Lab has set 2026 as its year of global expansion. The plan is to scale up in the U.S. market by focusing on the SaaS model, while consolidating its foundation in the Japanese market through corporate partnerships and securing local case studies (references), similar to its domestic strategy.
Technical refinements are also underway to make the Gency solution easily accessible to small merchants. Korean small businesses spend significant time integrating with online shopping platforms. Studio Lab is committed to developing features that automatically register detailed product pages on major platforms like Naver and Cafe24, addressing the merchants' stated pain points.
“Studio Lab’s goal is to become the Salesforce of the commerce sector,” Lee affirmed. “While we currently focus on content creation, we aspire to grow into an End-to-End solution company that covers the entire commerce process—from branding, shooting, detailed page creation, to sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).”
The age is dawning where technology eases the 'pains of creation,' enabling anyone to easily and effectively publicize their brand with high-quality content. Lee concluded with the ambition that Gency will not just be a tool for making detailed pages but a partner accompanying a brand through its entire journey, from its inception to meeting customers and achieving growth.
By Hyung-seok Kang (redbk@itdonga.com)
* This article was written with support from SBA and Seoul City.
- Their Gency platform combines SaaS solutions and robotics to deliver highly complete, customizable results, earning global recognition and facilitating expansion into overseas markets.
- Supported by the SBA, Studio Lab aims to become an end-to-end commerce solution partner, helping small merchants and brands grow efficiently in the digital age.
According to Statistics Korea, South Korea’s domestic online shopping (e-commerce) transaction value reached approximately KRW 242 trillion (approx. $179.3 billion) in 2024, marking a 5.8% increase year-over-year. The global market is also experiencing robust growth. Data from market research firm Precedence Research projects the market will expand from about $18.77 trillion in 2024 to $28.70 trillion by 2027.
The explosive growth of online shopping has amplified the importance of content creation. Consumers often decide whether to purchase based on a single photograph or a short descriptive phrase within the content. The commerce industry invests significant time and money in this process. Business Research Insights estimates that the global content marketing market will surge from $600 billion in 2024 to $1.95 trillion by 2032.
The content creation process is inherently complex. For a fashion brand or a small business owner to list a single product online, they must navigate a variety of steps: model scouting, photography, photo retouching, copywriting, and design layout. Selling just one item requires the combined expertise of designers, photographers, and merchandise planners. This content bottleneck is widely regarded as a significant pain point in the commerce market.
Jae-young Lee, COO of Studio Lab / source=IT DongA
Studio Lab has garnered attention by directly addressing the commerce market's pain points using AI and robotics. Their proprietary shooting robot recognizes product features and automatically frames the shot, while AI instantly generates detailed product pages that match the brand’s aesthetic. By attracting major fashion brands as clients, Studio Lab has successfully validated its value proposition.
How is Studio Lab transforming the e-commerce landscape? We sat down with Jae-young Lee, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Studio Lab, to discuss their technology and future goals.
Solving the Commerce Content Creation Conundrum
“I often discussed with CEO Sung-hoon Kang how large corporations spend time on procedural tasks, while startups live for the future by focusing on problems that need solving immediately,” Lee began. “We shared a consensus that we needed to live that future-forward way. I believe that alignment was the catalyst for founding Studio Lab.”
Lee and Kang first met at Samsung Electronics. The decisive factor in their commitment to entrepreneurship was the certainty that they had a 'good partner.' A strong market and an excellent item are useless without the right people to execute the vision. Lee explained that he trusted Kang’s global marketing experience, his critical perspective on the unreasonable margin structure of the content market, and his decisive leadership.
The two focused on the commerce content market. The period coincided with the surge in online fashion as non-contact shopping became normalized during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they identified that the time, cost, and complex processes involved in content creation were a substantial burden for brands.
Listening closely to the needs of the industry, Lee turned to AI. He predicted that automating complex and repetitive tasks with AI would dramatically increase work efficiency. They quickly moved to adopt the technology, even before the public popularized ChatGPT. “When we were developing, OpenAI was releasing GPT-3,” Lee recalled. “Generative AI was not yet a concept that resonated with people. That’s why we believed we had to enter the market faster than anyone else.”
'Gency': Redesigning the Commerce Content Experience
Studio Lab revamped its services. Seller Canvas, their detailed product page automation solution, was renamed Gency (short for AI Agency). Photobot, the robot shooting solution, became Gency PB, and the automated shooting space platform was branded Gency Studio. This consolidation under the Gency brand reflects a vision to redesign the entire brand experience, not just serve as a content automation tool.
Studio Lab unified services like Seller Canvas and Photobot under the Gency brand / source=Studio Lab
Gency is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for creating product information pages. When a product image is uploaded, Vision AI and Generative AI automatically analyze the image and produce the product information page. It assesses the product's design and features to automatically compose product descriptions and promotional copy. The task of creating a detailed product page, which once took several hours, can be completed in about 30 seconds. The platform can also generate customized pages simply by entering keywords.
Gency PB is an automated photography solution. AI analyzes the subject, model pose, composition, and background to capture photos ready for a detailed page. It can even control shooting parameters like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed based on the ambient studio lighting. Studio Lab has highly refined Gency PB for on-site customization. In constrained shooting spaces, the robot can recognize the subject, adjust the zoom, and automatically rotate the manne
quin to find the optimal angle.
Gency Studio focuses on revolutionizing the shooting space / source=Studio Lab
Gency Studio focuses on innovation in the physical shooting space. It combines robot control technology with Visual Effects (VFX), allowing users to freely change backgrounds during a shoot. According to Lee, this technology enables the creation of high-quality, magazine-like results even in small spaces.
The company also shifted its development focus from mere speed and efficiency to enhancing completeness. This change was driven by feedback that incomplete AI results still required human intervention, ultimately increasing the workload. “We received feedback that many AI-generated outputs were unfinished,” Lee said. “To solve this, we realized we must deliver highly complete results. In the age of AI, producing results at a 90% level is achievable by anyone. The process of moving from 90% to 95%, and then from 95% to 97%, is the most crucial.”
A Partner for Brand Birth and Growth, Not Just a Tool
Studio Lab’s AI and robotics technology has earned global recognition, notably winning the CES 2024 Best of Innovation Award, drawing attention from the worldwide industry. Buoyed by this confidence, Studio Lab is preparing for overseas market entry. A quantum leap in the commerce content market necessitates targeting the global stage.
The company will first test the waters in the U.S. and Japanese markets. However, breaking into new territories with limited resources and without local networks and pipelines presents a formidable challenge for any startup.
To overcome these hurdles, Studio Lab is leveraging participation in international exhibitions and utilizing global expansion programs offered by public organizations. Their participation in the 2025 Seoul AI Robot Show in October 2025 was aimed at meeting industry stakeholders both domestically and internationally. “Gency is a service that combines robotics and AI, so we were strongly motivated to raise awareness,” Lee explained. Following the show, industry professionals showed keen interest, and discussions on collaboration are underway with several companies.
Gency PB developed by Studio Lab / source=IT DongA
The support from the Seoul Business Agency (SBA) has played a pivotal role in Studio Lab’s growth. The SBA directly invested in the company, recognizing its growth potential, which helped enhance the completeness of their AI solutions and hardware equipment. Furthermore, the Robot R&D Support Program facilitated the advancement of Gency PB’s features. The Small Merchant AX (AI Transformation) Support Program helped expand the technical reach of Studio Lab. A planned testbed project at Seoul Sky is expected to be an opportunity to achieve both technical validation and revenue growth.
Regarding the SBA support, Lee stated, “All of the SBA’s assistance led to meaningful outcomes. Studio Lab started with a strong mission to help small merchants with commerce content creation. I believe these various support programs helped us rekindle our initial entrepreneurial spirit.”
Studio Lab has set 2026 as its year of global expansion. The plan is to scale up in the U.S. market by focusing on the SaaS model, while consolidating its foundation in the Japanese market through corporate partnerships and securing local case studies (references), similar to its domestic strategy.
Technical refinements are also underway to make the Gency solution easily accessible to small merchants. Korean small businesses spend significant time integrating with online shopping platforms. Studio Lab is committed to developing features that automatically register detailed product pages on major platforms like Naver and Cafe24, addressing the merchants' stated pain points.
“Studio Lab’s goal is to become the Salesforce of the commerce sector,” Lee affirmed. “While we currently focus on content creation, we aspire to grow into an End-to-End solution company that covers the entire commerce process—from branding, shooting, detailed page creation, to sales and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).”
The age is dawning where technology eases the 'pains of creation,' enabling anyone to easily and effectively publicize their brand with high-quality content. Lee concluded with the ambition that Gency will not just be a tool for making detailed pages but a partner accompanying a brand through its entire journey, from its inception to meeting customers and achieving growth.
By Hyung-seok Kang (redbk@itdonga.com)
* This article was written with support from SBA and Seoul City.
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