This 12 months, all three telecommunications corporations added artificial intelligence (AI) as a modifier in front of their company names.
Since last 12 months, SK Telecom has declared its step forward as a ‘global AI company’ specializing in three major fields, including ▲AI infrastructure, ▲AIX, and ▲AI service, and KT has expanded its communication technology (CT) capabilities into IT and artificial intelligence (AI) since CEO Kim Young-seop took office. ) got here up with the slogan ‘AICT Company’, a fusion of LGU+ emphasized ‘Loss Leading AX Company’, which goals for patrons and firms to grow together through AI.
After all, there are not any elements that could make a difference from the buyer’s viewpoint. Among the many AI services which have appeared to date, there may be nothing that may be in comparison with ‘coloring’, which was popular within the early 2000s.
The rationale why telecommunications corporations are specializing in AI is straightforward. Just as previously it made a leap from telecommunications to turn out to be a web service provider, it’s now expected that AI will follow suit. Just like the Web, AI can create added value in each B2C and B2B.
Amongst these, SKT showed a ‘wide-area move’ that stood out this 12 months. From the MWC held in Spain initially of the 12 months to promising startups each domestically and overseas, we’ve got joined hands with all places with potential. The intention is to cover infrastructure, B2B, and B2C.
This included investment from global startups reminiscent of Antropic and Perplexity, and collaboration with Open AI and Google was also mentioned. As well as, in Korea, it joined hands with dozens of AI corporations reminiscent of Allganize and Scatter Lab, and touched just about all fields, including merging AI semiconductor startups Sapion and Rebel. In keeping with the trend, AI agents were also emphasized.
As such, SKT’s portfolio is so extensive that it’s difficult to introduce all of it. And now we’ve got reached the purpose where we’ve got to supply results.
Within the case of consumer services, which often is the most vital of those, SKT is putting ‘Adot’ on the forefront. Based on IGA Works statistics, Adot is claimed to have the second largest variety of users (2.39 million) amongst domestic mobile AI services this 12 months, following ChatGPT (2.58 million). Nevertheless, little is thought concerning the extent of actual usability by consumers.
Then again, KT had no notable movements until the primary half of this 12 months. We built a network by investing in startups reminiscent of Upstage and Qanda, but no specific service direction was visible.
Then, last September, they made an enormous announcement about collaboration with Microsoft (MS). The large picture is drawn here, from the cloud to the event of domestic models, but it would likely take time for the main points to come back out. Particularly, little has been said about B2C services yet.
LGU+ chosen ‘ExiGen’, developed based on LA AI Research Institute’s foundation model ‘ExaOne’, because the core of its AI business expansion. The strategy is to start out through the use of this in-house, expand to B2B, and regularly expand to B2C services. The intention is to maximise current capabilities fairly than grand strategies.
On the surface, all three corporations are promoting AI as the middle of their business, but their approaches are different.
And there isn’t any significant performance yet. Particularly, they imagine it’s difficult to realize quick leads to B2C, so that they have recently been specializing in B2B. Nevertheless, B2C is the muse of business.
Ultimately, this 12 months has turn out to be ‘one other 12 months of preparation.’ And what to concentrate on and what to scale back is anticipated to regularly turn out to be clear ranging from 2025.
Reporter Jang Se-min semim99@aitimes.com, Reporter Park Soo-bin sbin08@aitimes.com
