SK Telecom is taking on the challenge of creating an AI chatbot so that every citizen can easily utilize AI in their daily lives.
On the 19th, SKT announced its participation in the 'AI for Everyone' project bid promoted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI). As a second-round selected project under the Independent AI Foundation Model initiative, SKT plans to consolidate its full-stack capabilities—possessing its own AI models, infrastructure, and services—for this project.
SKT currently operates 'A.', an AI service with 10 million monthly users, and recently unveiled its proprietary AI model 'A.X K2', featuring 688 billion parameters, through participation in the government's DOKPAMO (Independent AI Foundation Model) project. The A.X K2 model is being applied across diverse industries such as manufacturing, defense, and biotechnology, expanding its scope of use.
Additionally, SKT is actively securing AI infrastructure by establishing 'SK Hyper', a dedicated unit for AI data center operations, last month, and announcing plans to gradually open an AI data center with a capacity of 5 gigawatts (GW) by 2029.
SKT will also leverage its telecommunications business capabilities. It plans to rapidly expand AI services through approximately 22.5 million mobile communication lines and both online and offline channels.
SKT first plans to introduce an AI chatbot that supports conversation, search and summarization, document and image analysis, and schedule management. Starting with forms already familiar to citizens, it aims to lower the barrier to entry and later evolve into an AI agent capable of handling actual tasks on behalf of users. The goal is to support not only public service exploration and applications or issuance of various certificates but also reservations, applications, and payments across diverse life sectors including healthcare, transportation, finance, and education.
To achieve this, SKT will apply its proprietary AI model 'A.X K2' to the service. Simple inquiries will be handled quickly by lightweight models, while complex tasks will be processed accurately using high-performance models, aiming to enhance both service quality and operational efficiency simultaneously.
SKT is forming an 'AI for Everyone' consortium that covers all aspects of daily life. The consortium includes specialized companies and institutional investors such as Liner (specialized search), Shinhan Card and Hana Card (finance and payments), TMAP Mobility (mobility), SK Broadband (content), Persona AI (public data), Ellis Group (education), GoodDoc and Soundable Health (healthcare), Nota and SelectStar (AI models and infrastructure), and Aim Intelligence (AI security).
In particular, SKT plans to integrate services from each sector with AI, advancing beyond simple information provision to deliver high-level services that actually execute and resolve user requests such as reservations and applications.
Beyond consortium members, SKT also intends to pursue collaborations with various additional companies to build an ecosystem supporting citizens' utilization of AI.
Kim Ji-hoon, Head of SKT's AI Business Division, stated, "To prevent the digital divide from becoming a social divide, we need an environment where everyone can enjoy the benefits of AI." He added, "SK Telecom will strive to realize the 'AI for Everyone' service that anyone can easily use, leveraging our full-stack AI capabilities spanning models, infrastructure, and service operations, as well as our nationwide customer touchpoints through telecommunications."
in TECH
