In recent times, the meteoric AI surge has reinvented the career ecosystem, rocking the job markets in diverse industries. This AI revolution is taking root equally in the film industry. Recently,Lionsgate teased their collaboration with an AI startupto “augment” their live-action adaptation of the iconicNarutoanime, underscoring how AI-enhanced inventions extend to filmography and animation.
Digital comic creators are prone to this career-altering change; however,WEBTOON, a prominent manhwa-oriented brandin the creator-driven space, has established the company’s stance on AI and the permissible impact it would have on their content strategies.In a ScreenRant interview at Anime Expo 2025,WEBTOONexecutives disclosed their AI goals, inferring that it won’t compromise creator culture and monetization.
According to WEBTOON’s executives, AI strategies will help the company in terms of marketing and user satisfaction. The change won’t extend to artists and writers – the beating heart behind the content engine’s success.
WEBTOON Clarifies Their Stance on AI Implementation, And Creators Will Benefit From It
It Mostly Revolves Around Anti-Piracy Measures
The explosive rise of AI in diverse industries is begrudgingly resetting career paths. Creators are in an age where partners can replace them to opt for finance-friendly AI options, leaving them vulnerable to a highly competitive job market. To allay creators’ fears, WEBTOON openly shared the company’s take on Artificial Intelligence.
“Our company only really uses AI technology for our anti-piracy work, machine learning for our users, and then title recommendations for users. That move is really helping our platform, then as you may have seen in our big update within the U.S., there is more personalization in the app’s home tab. We have a bunch of users, and our platform has more tools to serve our younger female users. Naturally, that’s why our top five rankings feature many romance titles, but they are not fit for all users. We want to curate our home tab for users once we detect [their preferences], we want to show them content they may like, so that kind of curating is done by all our AI technology, that part is our focus area for right now..”
At Anime Expo 2025 in Los Angeles, WEBTOON partners disclosed their company’s intentions and inventions with ScreenRant. In a discussion with WEBTOON’s Head of Global, Yongsoo Kim, and Sinbae Kim, Chief Growth Officer at LINE Digital Frontier (WEBTOON’s Japanese business), they made it clear to us that WEBTOON employs AI as an anti-piracy measure.
This protection isn’t unnecessary, considering the rapid rise of piracy, and a detailed reference can be traced toOKToon’s pending lawsuit in South Koreafor uploading copyrighted works on their platform early this year. WEBTOON intends to ramp up its anti-piracy measures to prevent copyright infringement that undermines the intellectual property of creatives who worked hard to create amazing stories.
This gnawing problem is also a huge setback in the manga industry, so it’s reassuring to see reputable comic publishers like WEBTOON take decisive action on digital piracy. Ultimately, WEBTOON’s AI plans border on protecting and encouraging creators, not replacing their creative ingenuity. It’s a refreshing take on AI career involvement that aims at preserving rather than supplanting.
User Engagement Is At The Heart of WEBTOON’s AI Strategies
WEBTOON Developers Intend To Leverage AI for Optimal User Engagement
Apart from their piracy measures, WEBTOON executives also uncovered their use of AI from an engagement perspective that borders on functionality. AI will help WEBTOON with machine learning, offering title recommendations to users, enabling them to pick digital stories that complement their preferences.
AI will help WEBTOON with machine learning, offering title recommendations to users, enabling them to pick digital stories that complement their preferences.
The company admitted that even though their app’s personalisation has been successful, it’s geared towards younger female users who are more inclined to read romance titles, leaving out readers interested in other genres. To resolve this problem, AI-driven mechanisms will come into play.
The goal is to create an unbiased curation of titles that constantly changes to meet the taste of Webtoon readers for optimal user satisfaction. In essence,WEBTOONhas clarified its use of AI technologies for creator security and functional user enhancements, dispelling any unverified claims that the industry intends to lay off creators for AI substitutes.
