[Barcelona, Spain=Digital Today reporter Jin-ho Lee] "We must overcome whatever storms come our way. Change is needed. Our competitiveness and essence is the 'customer'. SK Telecom will not miss the golden time to adapt to new innovation."

Jung Jae-heon (정재헌), SKT's chief executive officer, delivered blunt remarks in Spain. SKT, which was shaken last year by a USIM hacking incident, is making a big bet on artificial intelligence. The plan is to use AI to raise customer value and fundamentally change the company's make-up.

A day before the opening of MWC26, SKT held a media briefing in Barcelona, Spain, on March 1 (local time). The briefing was less an introduction of an AI business than a declaration to redefine telecom operator SKT as an "AI native company".

◆ Transforming into an 'AI-centric telecom operator'... full rollout of 'autonomous network operations' strategy

Jung said it was time to innovate customer value and a golden time to adapt to the new innovation of AI. He stressed that SKT would redesign its No. 1 telecom DNA into AI DNA. SKT aims to make AI a new growth engine and reshape its operating system and organisational culture around AI.

Jung repeatedly mentioned "customers". He stressed that there was no point unless AI created changes customers could feel, saying the essence of SKT's business is the customer.

SKT will overhaul its integrated computing systems, the backbone of telecom services, with a design optimised for AI. It will build all integrated systems, including sales IT, line management and billing systems, around AI. It plans to offer pricing plans and memberships that immediately reflect hyper-personalised customer demands.

It also will not neglect securing customer trust. It will build a zero-trust information security framework across all systems. It will strengthen information security through thorough authentication, access control, network segmentation and AI-based integrated security monitoring.

SKT will also fully roll out an "autonomous network operations" strategy that automates overall network operations using AI. The strategy centres on shifting to an AI-based autonomous structure across radio quality management, traffic control and operations of telecom equipment and facilities. The key is "AI-RAN". SKT plans to deliver fast speeds and ultra-low-latency communications without interruptions through AI-RAN that learns complex wireless environments between base stations and smartphones on its own.

SKT will also apply AI to internal work processes. "For future growth, we must rebuild the way we work from scratch," Jung said, adding, "I will completely change SKT's corporate culture to be AI-centric."

SKT will build an "AX dashboard" that allows it to see AI use by department and by individual at a glance, accelerating AI transformation across the organisation. SKT also plans to pursue a one-person, one-AI system under which all employees use at least one AI agent.

◆ Accelerating full-stack AI with AI 'heart' and 'brain'

SKT will showcase a "full-stack AI" strategy at this year's MWC based on group capabilities. At the front line of the strategy are AI data centres. SKT will build ultra-large AI data-centre infrastructure across South Korea. It plans to expand its AI data centres to hyperscale capacity of more than 1 GW through global cooperation, including its "Haein" GPU cluster.

Jung said an AI data centre could be likened to the new heart of South Korea, and a large language model to the brain. He said SKT would add collaboration with domestic and overseas partners to its AI capabilities to lead customers and companies toward true AI native operations.

SKT will further advance its in-house AI models. SKT has entered the second stage of the government's "independent AI foundation model" project with its 519B (519 billion-parameter) "A.X (A-dot) K1". SKT will raise the model to more than 1,000B (1 trillion parameters). From the second half of this year, it will work on advanced multimodal capabilities that handle voice and video. It aims to develop "A-dot Phone" into a true AI agent that uses AI to organise call notes and schedule management, connect tailored services and carry out real actions.

SKT will also jointly develop a "manufacturing-specialised AI solution" package with SK Hynix, stepping up efforts to strengthen competitiveness in national manufacturing industries such as semiconductors and energy. The package is a technology that analyses process data in real time to reduce defect rates and maximise equipment efficiency.

Jung said the company would make an all-out effort so that, through new change, SKT can regain customer trust and become South Korea's leading "innovation engine" that contributes to the nation and society.