SK Telecom Goes 'AI Native'

SK Telecom's 'AI Native' goal is a multi-year strategy, with CEO Ryu Young-sang first announcing a vision to become an "AI Company" as early as November 2022. This builds on a 2023 strategy of "AI to Everywhere." The company has committed to tripling its AI investments, targeting $18.5 billion in AI-related revenue by 2028. A core component of this strategy is the "AI Pyramid," which focuses on three layers: AI infrastructure, AI transformation, and AI service. The infrastructure layer includes building hyperscale AI data centers, with a goal of doubling capacity by 2030, and developing its own AI semiconductors through its arm, Sapeon. The company aims to become a comprehensive AI data center developer and position South Korea as Asia's primary AI hub. To accelerate this transformation, SKT launched an independent in-house company, "AI CIC," in September 2025, consolidating all its AI assets and services under one roof. This unit, also headed by CEO Ryu Young-sang, is tasked with driving innovation across services like the personal AI assistant 'A.' and the enterprise-focused 'A. Biz'. The company plans to invest approximately $3.5 billion over five years into this new entity. The strategy extends beyond internal restructuring to global collaboration. SK Telecom is a leading member of the Global Telco AI Alliance, which includes Deutsche Telekom, e&, Singtel, and SoftBank. This alliance is working to co-develop a "Telco AI Platform" and large language models (LLMs) specifically tailored for the telecommunications industry to improve customer interactions through chatbots and digital assistants. This AI-native approach is also foundational to SKT's vision for 6G. The company's 'ATHENA' white paper outlines a 6G framework built on AI-native architecture, zero-trust security, and cloud-native operations. This involves a dual approach of using AI for network optimization and building a network specifically to support AI services. Internally, the company is fostering an AI-centric corporate culture. Initiatives include an 'AX Dashboard' to monitor AI usage across departments and a "one-person, one-AI" system to ensure all employees utilize at least one AI agent. The enterprise tool 'A. Biz' is being deployed across 25 group companies to assist with tasks like preparing meeting minutes and writing reports, with trials showing up to a 60% faster completion time for such tasks.