KT CEO vows to infuse AI into ICT

KT CEO Kim Young-shub speaks during a press conference held on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) tech fair in Barcelona, Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of KT

By Baek Byung-yeul

KT is looking to transform into what it calls an “AICT” company, combining its telecommunications capabilities with artificial intelligence (AI) and information and communications technology (ICT), to become a digital innovation partner for its customers, its CEO Kim Young-shub said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Tuesday (local time).

“KT will now be reborn as an AICT company, adding ICT and AI to its communications capabilities,” the KT CEO said during a press conference. “We will leap forward as a digital innovation partner that enhances the business value of customers and pioneers new markets by providing end-to-end services, from strategic planning for customer digital innovation to providing optimal solutions and efficient operation management.”

Moreover, KT will recruit up to 1,000 professionals in the AI and digital sectors this year and completely change KT’s DNA to be AI-centric by strengthening internal training and adopting AI technology, the CEO said.

“Korea has the best level of communication infrastructure and is a powerful country that introduced 5G services first in the world. It is more important than anything else to secure AI professionals for the future of the country and the growth of KT, and to provide an environment where they can show their capabilities and grow them into the best experts,” the CEO said.

For KT to become the AICT service company it aims to be, the KT CEO added that it is crucial to expand partnerships with global tech companies.

“We plan to quickly secure global-level competitiveness through active partnerships with global tech companies,” he said. “Through the partnerships, we will quickly internalize the world’s best know-how and capabilities.”

KT said that it will embark on a company-wide AI transition to achieve innovation as an AICT company. To that end, it will conduct a digital education program over six months to enable more employees to understand and utilize AI technology.

Also, for the provision of AI services, KT will develop and apply Gen.AIDU, an internal business innovation platform that utilizes its own hyper-sale AI model Mi:dm, OpenAI’s GPT and Meta’s Llama together.

To diversify its AI business portfolio, it added that it will provide AI Operations, a service that allows customers to use AI well, expand the scope of AI services such as the expansion of generative AI consulting services and offer an AI Agent service, which jointly develops AI services for business-to-business customers.