Yanolja Group's Data Innovation Shared on the Databricks Stage

Recently, Yanolja Group shared its data innovation journey at two major conferences hosted by Databricks.

At Databricks AI Days Seoul 2026, Kim Youngjin, CTO of Yanolja Consumer Platform (NOL UNIVERSE), presented Yanolja Group's integrated data platform project and its vision for the future of data. At Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 in San Francisco, Sooyoung Lee, Head of Data at Yanolja Consumer Platform (NOL UNIVERSE), and Youngho Song, Data Engineering Lead at Yanolja NEXT, shared how Yanolja Group has been building a data-driven culture across the organization.

While the two presentations focused on different topics—data platforms and data culture—they ultimately highlighted the same goal: how Yanolja Group is driving AI Transformation (AX) on the foundation of a strong data infrastructure.

The focus goes beyond simply building an environment where data can be connected and accessed. It is about enabling every employee—regardless of technical background—to understand and use data where it creates the greatest value. Together, the two sessions reflected Yanolja Group's ongoing efforts to turn data and AI into an organizational capability.

Building a Self-Service Data Environment

At Databricks AI Days Seoul 2026, Kim Youngjin introduced Yanolja Group's integrated data platform project and the data strategy built on top of it.

As travel services continue to expand, organizations generate increasing volumes of data across customers, reservations, products, payments, and marketing. At the same time, connecting and managing data spread across multiple systems and organizations becomes increasingly complex.

To address these challenges, Kim introduced Yanolja Group's integrated data platform initiative powered by Databricks. At NOL UNIVERSE, the proprietary feature store LYNX standardized and automated the entire lifecycle of feature creation, deployment, and management, creating a more efficient environment for data processing, analytics, and operations.

One of the most significant changes has been the way data is used across the organization. Rather than relying solely on the data team for data management and analysis, business domains are increasingly able to explore and utilize data through a self-service data environment. This enables teams to make faster data-driven decisions while taking greater ownership of their own data.

Following the introduction of LYNX, NOL UNIVERSE significantly reduced data processing time and costs while improving data availability. More importantly, data is no longer concentrated within a single team but is becoming accessible to a broader range of employees. This represents an important direction in the data innovation journey that Yanolja Group and Databricks are advancing together.

Building a Data-First Culture

Creating an environment where everyone can access data does not automatically result in a data-first organization.

At Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 in San Francisco, the conversation focused on what comes after building a data platform—how to extend data capabilities into an organization-wide competitive advantage.

In the session "Beyond the Tech Stack: Architecting a Data-First Culture at Scale," Sooyoung Lee, Head of Data at NOL UNIVERSE, and Youngho Song, Data Engineering Lead at Yanolja NEXT, shared Yanolja Group's experience in building a data-first culture.

The speakers introduced Yanolja Group's data education programs, along with initiatives such as data capability assessments, an enterprise-wide data capability framework, and a shared data language designed to strengthen data capabilities across the organization.

These efforts go beyond training programs. They represent a broader initiative to make data a common language across the organization rather than the domain of a single team or a small group of specialists.

Building AX Through Data Platforms and Data Culture

The two stories shared at Databricks AI Days Seoul 2026 and Databricks Data + AI Summit 2026 ultimately point in the same direction: moving beyond building the technical foundation for data to embedding data-driven decision-making into the way the organization works.

Through its collaboration with Databricks, Yanolja Group continues to build both its data platform and its data culture. As technology and people grow together, data becomes a true source of business value.

Together, the two presentations demonstrated that when data platforms and data culture evolve hand in hand, data and AI can drive meaningful business innovation.