KT CEO renews vision for growth

KT Corp. CEO Kim Young-shub declared the company’s new vision that accelerates innovation and growth in information technology, artificial intelligence and communications technology.

“Although KT is a leading telecom company in the world, it lacks IT competitiveness. We must make up for weak points by combining our CT and IT,” the CEO said at a press conference held on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday.

Kim urged KT Corp. to embark on a company-wide AI transformation to innovate into an "AICT company," while stressing that every company has to be concerned about AI when seeking growth. The word AICT is a combination of AI, IT and CT, according to the telecom giant.

“(To reform as an AICT firm), we plan to secure world-class competitiveness through active partnerships with global tech companies,” he said. “We’ll quickly internalize the world’s best know-how and capabilities.”

The company’s Executive Vice President Oh Seung-pil explained that the telecom giant would offer several types of large language models through global partnerships for corporate clients, in addition to its homegrown language model specialized in Korean.

Kim, who participated in the world’s largest mobile tech show for the first time after taking office in August, said he has concluded that innovation with AI and IT is the only way to survive.

At the same time, he presented three key strategies for KT’s AI transformation: internal innovation, talent recruitment and open AI partnership.

The KT chief said the company would recruit up to 1,000 experts in the AI ​​and digital fields within this year, including experienced workers. From there, the company will shift to focus on and internalize AI through strengthened internal education.

“For the future of Korea and the growth of KT, it is most important to secure AI talent and provide an environment where workers can develop their capabilities to become top experts,” Kim added.

Additionally, the company plans to develop an internal business innovation platform based on the multi-LLM strategy to increase convenience and strengthen security, as well as establish an AI governance system and a system to constantly monitor and evaluate the risk level of AI.