AI Cut Korean Herbal Medicine Prep Time from 300 Minutes to 5 - But the Smart Part Is What It Didn't Touch: the Korean Medicine Doctor's Judgment
Korean startup Onerve combined AI with electronic medical records to cut the prep time for a single dose of Korean herbal medicine from 300 minutes to 5, winning a CES Innovation Award and raising 6.2 billion won. But the real story isn’t speed - it’s that they only automated the repeatable, standardizable part of manufacturing while leaving diagnosis and prescription judgment to the Korean medicine doctor. That’s exactly the right division of labor for bringing AI into any traditional industry.