Chazm operator plans to expand its AI agent’s role in customer consultations and contract workflows while strengthening controls over personal and financial information
South Korean mobility fintech company Design & Practice, operator of automotive leasing and long-term rental platform Chazm, has been selected for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ Scale-up TIPS programme, as it looks to expand the operational role of artificial intelligence in automotive finance while strengthening information security.
The company said its next phase of research and development will focus on advancing its AI agent, Chazmi, and improving the security systems required to handle customer information and financial processes. The announcement comes as Chazm continues to expand its platform, which has approximately 880,000 cumulative subscribers and partnerships with 17 financial and rental companies.
Design & Practice reported that Chazm’s monthly transaction volume exceeded KRW 50 billion during the third quarter of 2026. The company is now looking to extend AI beyond customer inquiries and routine contract processes, with a gradual expansion of the tasks it can perform independently.
Chazmi to Take on More Automotive Finance Workflows
Chazm currently uses Chazmi to support its customer-facing Buddy consultants. The AI agent handles portions of the customer journey, including inquiries and contract-related processes, while consultants intervene when a task requires independent judgment or additional consultation.
Design & Practice plans to expand this division of work by assigning more standardized and repetitive tasks to AI. The company expects the agent’s responsibilities to grow progressively, depending on development and validation results.
The initiative is focused on developing a vertical AI agent rather than a general-purpose customer service system. Automotive finance involves multiple connected processes, including vehicle selection, financial product comparison, screening, contracts and vehicle delivery. The company believes that understanding these workflows is necessary for AI to perform more complex tasks.
While conversing with KoreaTechToday, Design & Practice said:
“The core focus of this R&D initiative is to advance a vertical AI agent specialized in the automotive domain. Automotive finance requires an understanding not only of vehicles and financial products, but also of the operational context connecting quotations, screening, contracts, and vehicle delivery. Drawing on this domain knowledge and these workflows, Chazm aims to expand the tasks its AI agent can perform while strengthening the information security framework needed to operate it.
“As AI takes on a broader range of responsibilities, controls over personal and financial information become increasingly important. We plan to strengthen mechanisms that restrict the data AI can access and the actions it is authorized to perform, while verifying and logging data access and task execution to keep its operations within permitted boundaries.
“Development and service deployment will proceed in stages. We plan to progressively expand the scope of implementation based on the development and validation results at each stage.”
The staged approach suggests that the company intends to expand AI autonomy incrementally rather than transfer entire customer journeys to the agent at once. Its immediate focus remains on tasks that can be standardized, with human consultants retaining responsibility for situations requiring judgment.
Security Controls Become Central to AI Expansion
As Chazmi takes on more responsibilities, Design & Practice plans to strengthen restrictions on the information it can access and the actions it can execute. The company said it will improve mechanisms to verify and log data access and task execution. The objective is to ensure that AI operates only within preapproved boundaries, particularly when handling customer personal information and financial data.
This is significant because automotive finance workflows involve more than responding to customer questions. AI systems that participate in screening, contracts or post-contract processes may interact with information and actions that have direct financial or contractual consequences.
South Korea’s financial sector is also developing more formal approaches to AI security and governance. The Financial Security Institute has been preparing an AI-agent security assessment framework covering 17 inspection items, with formal implementation planned from 2027. The framework reflects growing attention to how AI systems access information, execute tasks and operate within financial institutions.
For Design & Practice, security is therefore part of the underlying AI development effort rather than a separate feature added after deployment.
The company’s CEO, Jeong Sang-yeon, said:
“Since automotive finance handles customers’ personal and financial information, expanding the scope of AI utilization and safely controlling it must go hand in hand,” he said. “Through this Scale-up TIPS program, we will create an automotive finance environment where AI and humans efficiently divide tasks while customers can use the service with peace of mind.”
The statement places the company’s development priorities around two connected objectives: increasing the practical use of AI and maintaining controls over customer information.
Scale-up TIPS Supports Further Development
Scale-up TIPS is a government-linked R&D programme that connects promising companies with private investment operators and research support. Design & Practice’s selection is intended to support its development of automotive finance AI and the security infrastructure needed for broader deployment.
The company has not disclosed the specific funding amount, detailed research milestones or a timeline for expanding Chazmi’s responsibilities. Alongside its AI development, Chazm is expanding its services beyond vehicle quotation comparisons and contract execution. Its platform is moving into processes such as contract transfers and vehicle delivery, with the aim of supporting more of the customer journey after a vehicle finance agreement is initiated.
The expansion reflects the operational complexity of automotive finance, where customers must navigate vehicle choices, financial products, eligibility requirements and contractual processes. By connecting these stages, Chazm aims to simplify the experience and reduce information asymmetry between consumers and providers.
However, expanding the platform’s scope also increases the number of workflows that AI may eventually support. The company’s security plans will therefore be closely tied to how quickly and extensively it deploys the agent.
A Gradual Path Toward AI-Assisted Automotive Finance
Design & Practice’s Scale-up TIPS selection marks a development phase for Chazm in which AI is expected to take on a larger role in the platform’s operations. The company is not announcing a fully autonomous automotive finance service. Instead, it plans to expand Chazmi’s responsibilities in stages, with human consultants continuing to handle tasks requiring judgment and the AI operating within defined access and execution limits.
The next test will be whether the company can demonstrate that its agent performs more than routine customer support while maintaining reliable controls over sensitive information and contract-related processes.
For Chazm, the opportunity lies in applying AI to a connected automotive finance workflow. Its progress will depend not only on how many tasks the agent can perform, but also on whether those tasks can be executed accurately, securely and consistently as the platform expands.
