[CES 2024] SKT focusing AI efforts on company's area of expertise: communication

Kim Yong-hun, the SK Telecom vice president leading its AI business, speaks during an interview with the Korean press on Wednesday during CES 2024 in Las Vegas. [SK GROUP]

LAS VEGAS — SK Telecom (SKT) hopes to connect people with its latest “A.” AI service by doing what the company does best — communication.

A. — pronounced “A dot” — is SKT's flagship AI service that simultaneously translates and summarizes calls.

“We are a telecom company that aims to connect people with people and people with services,” said Kim Yong-hun, the SKT vice president leading the company's AI charge, in an interview Wednesday during CES 2024 in Las Vegas.

“There have been trials and errors, but companies are integrating AI technology into the fields in which they excel, like how Microsoft integrated Copilot into Office and Google integrated Bard in its search engine. As communication experts, we expect synergy from merging AI into what we are good at — calls, texts and those kinds of communication.”

A. stands on the top of SK Group's AI pyramid strategy, where the bottom layer consists of infrastructure such as AI chips, and the middle layer is AI transformation, which means infusing AI into existing businesses like mobile and broadband.

At the top layer are services like A. which serves as a personal assistant.

A.'s ultimate goal, however, is to become a so-called super app.

“In the end, we want it to be a super app,” Kim said.

“Right now, we must go for a 'choice and concentrate' strategy. Last year, we did so much work to become a super app that it ultimately confused the users. It was too complicated and did not have a direction. So now, we want to pick areas of potential and cement our position with our users before expanding the service.”

Forging a global alliance would be one step toward being a super app.

“We are establishing a global tech alliance, which will have more details to spill at the MWC next year,” said Han.

“We believe assistant services like A. will enjoy global demand, although details might differ. We are mulling over various service levels.”

On-device AI was a major topic at this year's CES, evolving from the network-based AI that was the focus of hype last year after the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Han forecast that on-device large language models (LLM) will be the next trend.

“In the past, processing LLMs on hardware was challenging. Now, chips have become better, and LLM has gotten lighter,” the vice president said.

“But since there will be limits to standalone LLM in terms of functions, I think there will be some kind of hybrid one combining a cloud version and an on-device version.”

Additional services are coming to A., though Han says the services will stay in the communication realm.

“Instead of saying that A. is good for communication and non-communication sectors, I think we should examine domains similar to communication,” Han said.

"[A new service coming to A.] will be extended communication.”

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]