Hangul and Computer has changed its name to "Hancom" after 36 years and declared its leap into an artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic operating system (OS) company. The plan is to move beyond its existing identity centered on document-creation tools and reshape itself into a global tech company centered on data and AI.
Hancom held a shareholders' meeting Tuesday and disclosed that it approved a proposal to amend its articles of incorporation to change its name to "Hancom." Founded in 1989, Hancom is a flagship company that led Korea's first generation of information technology (IT) through the domestically developed word processor "Arae-a Hangul," establishing the standard for Korean-language documents. The new name "Hancom" reflects its determination to expand its business beyond documents into data and AI agents.
This business transition is being borne out by growth in earnings. Hancom's AI package revenue last year was 8.9 billion won, accounting for 5% of total sales. As of the first quarter of this year, the AI revenue share reached 11.52% (5.2 billion won), a sharp jump from the same period a year earlier (0.04%), continuing a steep upward trend.
Hancom plans to move beyond simply adopting AI and to begin its transition into an "agentic OS" company in earnest this year. An agentic OS is a next-generation operating system that connects and controls various AI agents in a single environment. Hancom is preparing to target domestic and overseas markets simultaneously, aiming to release a beta version in the second half of this year.
In particular, the field Hancom is directly targeting is the "sovereign agentic OS" market. This is because industries handling sensitive data—such as the public sector, defense, finance, and healthcare—find it difficult to entrust their data to global Big Tech, so demand for an independent agentic OS is rapidly increasing.
Hancom is currently producing results by successively supplying AI transformation (AX) solutions to major domestic institutions and companies, including Korea Western Power, the National Assembly, and BGF Group. Using this as a springboard, it is also accelerating its push into the European market. It recently began joint research on European localization of its agentic OS with "7bulls," a Polish national-accredited research and development (R&D) center, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local AI firm "Algomine" to conduct a proof of concept (PoC) in the public sector.
"This name change is not a pledge for the future, but an occasion to confirm a successful transformation we have already achieved," Hancom CEO Kim Yeon-soo said. "Having reestablished Hancom as a solid AI company on top of the technological assets built up over 36 years, we will now use these as a weapon to preempt the sovereign agentic OS market and challenge the global standard."
