Kim Young-seop, CEO of KT, revealed KT's direction for AX (artificial intelligence transformation) this year at a press conference for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 held in Barcelona, Spain, on the 4th (local time).
The 'AX Delivery Institute' (tentative name) that KT plans to establish in the first quarter of this year is a group of around 300 talent, including KT's personnel and world-class global experts from Microsoft. This organization accumulates top-notch AX capabilities to develop customer-tailored AX business and swiftly implement AX projects necessary for corporations.
KT improved its structure by consolidating the previously divided business proposal and implementation organizations across various institutional sectors, headquarters, departments, and teams into one. It is expected that this will accelerate the pace of AX business promotion by accommodating both system integration (SI) and system operation (SM) in the business-to-business (B2B) AI sector.
KT will actively enhance AX manpower and expertise through recruitment, education, and projects. In addition to AI and data experts, it will bolster talent specialized in user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) to maximize satisfaction at customer touchpoints, while operating a global project-based training program that allows collaboration with advanced companies overseas. It also plans to introduce an AX preferential job system to secure and cultivate high-capability AX talent and establish communities and AX training centers where AX experts from various industries, such as education, healthcare, defense, and energy shipbuilding, can gather.
KT plans to unveil 'Korean AI' and KT Secure Public Cloud (SPC) services in the second quarter of this year. 'Korean AI' aims to offer a safe AI service that not only processes Korean language but also comprehensively understands the spirit, methods, and knowledge of Korea, reflecting Korea's society, history, and national perspective, in accordance with domestic systems and regulations.
To popularize 'Korean AI,' KT plans to focus its investment on developing AI models that reflect Korean uniqueness, utilizing its self-developed model 'Faith,' collaborating with Microsoft to leverage Korean state-of-the-art (SOTA) models, and employing various open-source models, with an aim to provide solutions optimized for the domestic market.
'KT SPC' has strengths in offering a user environment and experience, and efficiency similar to existing public clouds while complying with domestic laws and regulations, coupled with high security, autonomy, and scalability. KT plans to apply 'KT SPC' to its internal IT system to set a reference standard and expand it externally.
KT plans to continuously expand its collaborative ecosystem with external partners by developing joint solutions that combine Korean AI and KT SPC, along with various global platform companies that can connect with the Korean AI model and 'KT SPC.' From the first quarter, KT will operate an AX strategy fund in partnership with Microsoft and work with startups and small to medium enterprises to discover AX solutions and services tailored to each industry.
KT is also developing a technology called 'Network AI,' focused on innovating networks through its self-owned AI technology and collaborations with global big tech companies. It plans to implement functions such as early detection of network core failures, enhancement of customer perceived quality, and power savings as priorities for network operation.
Kim noted, 'The focus for KT after this year will be the complete transition to an AICT company,' emphasizing that 'we will strengthen innovation in all areas the company encompasses.'