This video features an in-depth conversation with Hi-Local CEO Yoon Jeong-ho on Kakao Ventures' "Catch Up!" segment, exploring solutions to communication problems between foreign workers and Korean managers on industrial job sites. Hi-Local goes beyond simple translation with HiWorker, a field-specific AI interpretation solution, addressing three core pain points: the language barrier, missed work instructions, and gaps in safety management. The discussion also presents a vision for global expansion and an era of foreign-national supervisors.

1. Introducing Hi-Local CEO Yoon Jeong-ho and Recognizing the Problem on the Ground 🙋‍♂️

Hi-Local CEO Yoon Jeong-ho appeared on Kakao Ventures' "Catch Up!" segment, introducing himself and explaining that his work is focused on developing solutions for foreign workers. The host noted that foreign workers already make up 5% of Korea's population and that communication problems are especially severe on industrial job sites such as construction and shipbuilding.

CEO Yoon explained that at shipyards (Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hanwha Ocean, Daihan Shipbuilding, Samsung Heavy Industries), manufacturing plants, construction sites, and agricultural operations, language barriers prevent work instructions from being properly conveyed, leading to work delays and industrial accidents. He emphasized that each job site has its own specialized language, making simple translation insufficient for real communication.

"When I visit job sites, I sometimes meet people who say, 'Oh, I speak Korean fine.' But you absolutely cannot say that the language of the job site is well understood. Because they have their own language on the floor."

2. What Led to Hi-Local: CEO Yoon's Working Holiday Experience ✈️

CEO Yoon shared his experience during a working holiday in Australia in 2010, where despite years of studying English, he struggled to communicate because of technical jargon and abbreviated language used at a fast pace on the job. This personal experience convinced him that similar problems would certainly arise on industrial job sites in Korea, and he came to feel keenly the need for accurate real-time translation.

"I went to Australia on a working holiday way back in 2010. I worked three jobs there… I figured of course I'd be able to communicate, but on the job, they used specialized terms and abbreviated language so fast that nothing got through."

"I don't think that problem will be fully solved even by far better translation tools in the future. Because localization is what's needed."

3. The Biggest Headache for Site Managers: Work Instructions and Safety Management 👷

According to CEO Yoon, site managers cite "work instructions not getting through" as their biggest pain point — even above safety concerns. For tasks that require precise detail, such as welding or machine assembly, foreign workers struggle to understand Korean managers' regional dialects and site-specific slang (e.g., "gonguri chija," "narashik jagup," "yarikiri haja"). These field expressions are often beyond the reach of even the latest translation apps.

"The real pain point on the job site is actually not safety. The real problem is that work instructions don't get through."

"'Let's do a gonguri.' 'Did you work it narashik-style?' 'It's Friday, let's yarikiri.' Do you know what those mean? These are things that even those of us from white-collar backgrounds don't always understand."

"If you put 'gonguri chira' into ChatGPT or Papago, it just won't understand."

4. How HiWorker Works and Its Expansion Roadmap 📱

4.1. HiWorker's Real-Time Interpretation Method

Hi-Local's solution, HiWorker, lets a manager speak Korean into a walkie-talkie-style smartphone, and foreign workers each receive real-time voice interpretation in their own native language. No app installation is required — workers simply scan a QR code — making it highly practical for job site use.

4.2. Compliance with the Serious Accident Punishment Act and Documentation

HiWorker goes beyond interpretation by recording all work instructions, making the logs available as evidentiary documentation for regulations such as the Serious Accident Punishment Act. This addresses the longstanding problem of safety briefings and work orders being conveyed only verbally, leaving no written record.

"Because our product is used for giving work instructions, everything gets recorded. And later that becomes evidentiary material — so managers really love it."

4.3. Future Roadmap: ERP Integration and Smart Wearables 🌐

In response to customer requests, Hi-Local is currently pursuing two roadmap initiatives:

1. ERP System Integration: Integrating HiWorker into existing production management (ERP) systems to improve operational efficiency. Integration was already achieved in collaboration with Naver Cloud late last year, with plans for broader deployment this year.
2. Smart Wearable Integration: Attaching real-time translation capabilities to smart safety equipment — hard hats, safety vests, smart bands — to overcome the communication limitations of existing IoT devices on job sites.

5. The Pivot: From a B2C Language Exchange App to a B2B Industrial Solution 🔄

When Hi-Local first received investment from Kakao Ventures, its main product was a B2C language exchange app. The app was popular, attracting two million users, but suffered from a low payment conversion rate.

Through user research, CEO Yoon realized that the primary reason foreigners come to Korea is work, which prompted him to search for a new business direction. After evaluating six possible products, he decided to pivot to an industrial job site communication solution that could leverage his team's existing real-time communication technology based on WebRTC.

5.1. The Difficulty of Pivoting as a Team — and How They Overcame It

Since the company was co-founded, pivoting at the five-year mark was not easy. CEO Yoon believed that convincing his co-founders required not just words but tangible results.

He went out personally, walking into Hanssol and Samsung C&T with nothing but a single A4 sheet of paper that read "foreign worker communication and education solution." Both companies responded with strong interest. He said the look in the eyes of the people he met confirmed beyond doubt that the demand was real.

"When I saw the eyes of the people at those two companies light up — so much more alive than when I'd explained our B2C language exchange to anyone outside — I thought, if I build a prototype around this and bring it back, there's a real shot here."

He returned with a prototype in one to two weeks, immediately signed a POC contract, and proved the viability of the B2B industrial solution.

6. CEO Yoon's Book on Foreign Workers and the Korean Market Outlook 📚

CEO Yoon introduced his book, Foreign Workers, which became a bestseller in the labor and society category. He wrote it to deeply research and understand policy and case studies related to foreign workers in Korea.

He offered the following outlook for the Korean market, where demographic decline makes foreign labor inflows inevitable:

• The Japanese case: Korea should strengthen cultural and language education for incoming foreign workers to promote social integration.
• The Singaporean case: When industrial accidents occur, workers who violated safety rules should also be penalized — not just employers — in order to raise accountability.
• The Swedish case: Excessive immigration relative to population can create discrimination issues for the second generation, so society must work to ensure children from multicultural families do not experience discrimination.

"What Korea ultimately needs is to train workers much more thoroughly in Korean culture, language, and skills before they arrive, so they can integrate well into society. That's one thing."

"In Singapore — Korea currently only penalizes the employer when an industrial accident or some problem occurs. Workers must also be held accountable."

7. Hi-Local's Global Expansion Plans and Collaboration with OpenAI 🌍

Hi-Local is actively exploring expansion beyond the Korean market.

• First place at Samsung C&T Future Scape Demo Day: Discussions are underway about deploying jointly into Samsung C&T's overseas construction and plant sites.
• ODA Program with the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology: Hi-Local will provide its solution for communication programs between Korean company managers and local workers in Vietnam, Indonesia, and other countries.
• POC contracts in Malaysia, Japan, and Uzbekistan: Signed POC agreements in multiple countries — including Malaysia, Japan, and Uzbekistan (Bomi Construction) — confirming the potential of international markets.

Notably, OpenAI has expressed interest in Hi-Local and plans to visit. This is because the industry-specific data Hi-Local possesses could provide new value for training OpenAI's large language models. The plan is to discuss collaborative labeling and training of rare industrial job site data — data that does not exist on the web — to develop new features.

"I think this is honestly a solution the world needs everywhere you go, not just Korea."

"In the end it comes down to data. The data that can be crawled from websites is already fully trained into language models, so it's not particularly rare or interesting. But industrial job site data isn't posted online, so companies that hold that kind of data get a lot of attention."

8. The Coming Era of Foreign Supervisors and Hi-Local's Role 📈

On today's job sites, it is increasingly common for foreign workers to be promoted to team lead or foreman roles. This is driven not only by the workers' own efforts but also by a structural gap in the Korean middle-management layer. In the manufacturing sector, the generation between the parents' era and today's workforce has thinned out, leaving foreign workers to fill that space.

For foreign workers, this represents an opportunity for higher income and a stable path to settlement; for employers, it is a practical solution to the management vacancy problem. Hi-Local plans to contribute to both sides by offering solutions that strengthen Korean cultural and language training in preparation for this era of foreign supervisors, addressing social challenges and structural business problems simultaneously.

"Both sides need this. Foreign workers want to settle and earn more… and employers are in a situation where they simply have to make them supervisors."

9. Hi-Local's Proudest Moments and Vision ✨

In the one year and two months since HiWorker launched, Hi-Local has achieved considerable results. The greatest source of pride, CEO Yoon says, is the explosive enthusiasm Korean site managers show when introduced to the solution. Even after scheduled meetings end, they keep asking detailed questions — and that reaction has confirmed for him that HiWorker is "a solution they genuinely needed."

"Even after the meeting time was well past over, people kept asking so many questions beyond the scheduled time… This is really needed. This is really, truly needed. I felt that so clearly."

"Large companies and big enterprises sometimes employ interpreters, but no matter how many interpreters they have, if you call one for a meeting, you almost have to book in advance. And they'll come in one or two weeks. But the meeting needs to happen right now."

The name Hi-Local — "Hi, local" — embodies the company's vision of connecting foreign workers and Korean managers to enable real communication. The ultimate goal is to go beyond functional work communication and support cultural connection as well, helping foreign workers integrate well into Korean society and contributing to a better society for everyone. Hi-Local plans to continue refining and advancing its solutions in pursuit of that vision.

Conclusion 🌟

Hi-Local is contributing to improved operational efficiency and safety management through HiWorker, an innovative AI interpretation solution that addresses the chronic communication gap between foreign workers and Korean managers on industrial job sites. A successful pivot from B2C to B2B, domestic and international market expansion, and ongoing collaboration discussions with OpenAI all demonstrate Hi-Local's potential and technical depth. Going forward, Hi-Local is expected to play a significant role in advancing not just functional communication but cultural understanding between foreign workers and Korean managers — building a society where everyone can thrive together.