YOU ARE AT:AI InfrastructureSK Telecom announces restructuring to advance in the AI field

SK Telecom announces restructuring to advance in the AI field

SK Telecom also merged its AI R&D efforts to strengthen AI and digital transformation (AT/DT) capabilities

Korean telco SK Telecom (SKT) unveiled its 2025 organizational restructuring and executive appointments to achieve progress in its dual focus areas of telecommunications and artificial intelligence (AI).

In a release, the telco’s CEO Yoo Young-sang emphasized that 2025 will be a year of action, with the company reorganized to streamline execution and enhance its strengths in communications and AI. SK Telecom has restructured into seven business divisions aimed at bolstering its telecommunications and AI capabilities, supported by a shared infrastructure group and staff functions.

The reorganization includes:

-Telecommunications divisions: MNO business, wireline/media business and enterprise business divisions to enhance core telecom operations.

-AI-Focused divisions: Adot business, GPAA (Global Personal AI Agent) business, AIX business, and AI data center business divisions to drive AI innovation and implementation.

The Enterprise business division will manage B2B operations, including messaging, advertising and payment services. The AIX Division will focus on AI-based business innovations, while the AI Data Center Division will expand GPU cloud and AI data center services.

Also, SK Telecom merged its AI R&D efforts to strengthen AI and digital transformation (AT/DT) capabilities. The AI R&D Center will support the development of advanced AI technologies like digital twins and AI factories, while the AT/DT Center integrates transformation initiatives across SKT and SK C&C.

The telco also announced three new executive appointments, focusing on younger professionals with expertise in communications and AI.

SK Telecom recently announced the successful completion of its AI Customer Service Support System beta service. The system, powered by SK Telecom’s proprietary telecommunications-specialized large language model (Telco LLM) and large multimodal model (LMM), has been delivering solid results since its mid-October launch, the telco said.

The Korean carrier said it has collaborated with leading global LLM companies to develop a sophisticated AI system specifically tailored for telecommunications applications. The operator also noted that it has carried out rigorous testing and iterative reinforcement learning, to refine its Telco LLM and LMM to meet the demands of telecommunications services.

In October, SK Telecom unveiled ‘Aster(A*)’, an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personal assistant tailored for global users.

Aster is scheduled to launch a closed beta in North America later this year, with a full market launch planned for 2025.

Aster is designed as an ‘Agentic AI,’ which goes beyond simple Q&A or search functions by understanding users’ intentions to set goals, make plans and complete tasks on their behalf, the telco said.

SK Telecom is actively using AI to improve its networks and services. In August, the telco announced a complete overhaul of its artificial intelligence (AI) service, “A.” pronounced “A-DoT.” The Korean operator had said that the revamp aims to transform the A. app into an AI personal assistant focused on enhancing daily convenience for customers.

Last year, SK Telecom had announced its ambition to become a global artificial intelligence company by strengthening its own AI competitiveness and cooperating with partners globally.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro Tomás
Juan Pedro covers Global Carriers and Global Enterprise IoT. Prior to RCR, Juan Pedro worked for Business News Americas, covering telecoms and IT news in the Latin American markets. He also worked for Telecompaper as their Regional Editor for Latin America and Asia/Pacific. Juan Pedro has also contributed to Latin Trade magazine as the publication's correspondent in Argentina and with political risk consultancy firm Exclusive Analysis, writing reports and providing political and economic information from certain Latin American markets. He has a degree in International Relations and a master in Journalism and is married with two kids.