Strategies by major companies that have joined the government’s “AI for Everyone” project are taking shape. All share a plan to start with a general-purpose chatbot, but they differ on which models to combine and how to connect them to existing services.

Industry sources said on Wednesday each consortium is pursuing a different way to implement AI for Everyone based on the AI models, services and user touchpoints it already has.

AI for Everyone is a government project to use domestic AI models to build a general-purpose AI service that the entire population can easily use, along with specialized agents for public and daily-life sectors. Six operators and consortia, including SK Telecom, MKD, East Soft, Xenon, Kakao and KT, submitted proposals. The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to select an operator after written and presentation evaluations by the end of this month and begin the service within the year.

SKT combines A.X K2 and specialist models, aiming to expand into daily-life agents.

SKT has the broadest AI value chain among the four groups. It plans to use its experience operating A.Dot with 10 million monthly active users, its A.Dot X (A.X) K2 AI foundation model developed under its 독파모 project, AI data centers and about 22.5 million mobile lines.

It will not use A.X K2 alone. The project requires participants to use other companies’ domestic AI models for at least 30 percent, so it will also use specialist models from participating firms such as Liner. Nota, Selectstar and A2sys will handle model optimization, data training and model routing, linking suitable models for each task around A.X K2.

The service will start as a chatbot, but ultimately aims to become an agent that directly handles user requests. Shinhan Card, Hana Card, T Map Mobility, Goodoc and Soundable Health will take charge of finance and payments, transport and healthcare. The approach is for AI to handle processes end to end, including reservations, applications and payments, as well as public service applications and certificate issuance.

An SKT official said, “The support requirements include a condition to use other companies’ domestic AI models for at least 30 percent, so it is impossible to participate with a single model.” The official added, “For example, using the Liner model can support services such as in-depth academic information search for university students and researchers.”

Kakao plans to add LG’s capabilities through KakaoTalk touchpoints.

Kakao’s strategy is to provide AI services using customer touchpoints based on KakaoTalk, together with major LG IT affiliates. Kakao has not yet disclosed specific details, including whether it will embed AI for Everyone directly within KakaoTalk or offer it as a separate service.

LG affiliates will supplement the technical foundation linked to models, communications, devices and public AI services. LG AI Research will provide K-Exaone and handle upgrades and safety verification, while LG Uplus will conduct large-scale user-environment demonstrations. LG Electronics will handle device linkage, LG CNS will link public systems and data, and Kakao Enterprise will take charge of AI infrastructure and platforms.

The participating lineup also suggests the addition of medical and care vertical services. Seoul National University Hospital and Lunit will verify the quality of health-specialized AI, and Wonderful Platform will review accessibility and safety for senior-care AI. Shinhan Bank, Jarvis & Villains and WorkSphere will add services in finance, tax and employment.

Se-woong Kim (김세웅), Kakao’s AI Synergy Performance Leader, said, “This consortium is a cooperative system that brings together the will and capabilities to help the entire population easily discover and use AI services in everyday environments.” He added, “We plan to fulfill our responsibility to create an AI service that anyone can trust and use, together with participating companies in various fields with their own expertise.”

KT brings together Upstage, Motive and NC AI in a multi-LLM strategy.

The KT consortium includes several 독파모 developers. Upstage, Motive Technologies and NC AI are participating, and Korean-language LLM developer ActionPower has also joined the model and platform segment. This has been interpreted as assuming a multi-large language model approach, securing multiple domestic AI models and selecting them according to the nature of the service.

KT did not disclose details such as the usage ratio by model or a routing method that switches models depending on requests. But because it plans to provide services with different characteristics, such as search, shopping, housing, education and finance, on one platform, it is expected to select and connect suitable models for each task.

The consortium’s composition also supports that approach. Daum, Saltlux, Musinsa, Zigbang, Mathpresso, EBS, BC Card and DeepSearch are participating in daily-life service areas such as search, shopping, housing, education and finance. Rableup, Rebellions and Vessel AI Korea joined on the infrastructure side. KT will handle telecommunications, cloud and AI platforms, as well as large-scale service operations.

Jin-hyung Lee (이진형), managing director and head of KT’s AX Business Division, said, “We will prepare a stable and trustworthy AI service for South Korea by combining the capabilities of leading domestic AI companies with KT’s telecommunications and AI operations capabilities.”

East Soft plans to add AI to Zoom and Alyac.

East Soft plans to provide agent-type services by adding AI functions to its existing services such as Zoom, Alyac and ALTools. It is reviewing a plan to use a top-ranked 독파모 domestic model. It also plans to use its experience from the LG AI Research consortium, where it applied K-Exaone to Zoom and Alyac, in this project as well.

The consortium is also focused on AI transformation of existing services. East Soft will handle the overall service platform, MegazoneCloud will provide infrastructure, SureSoftTech will verify AI guardrails, Wisnut will handle public agents, Polaris Office will handle document agents, and Bdraft will handle AI models. The Korea Productivity Center will work on ecosystem expansion, and Eastade will handle AI search and user growth channels. It also confirmed additional cooperation with companies in travel, commerce, education and security.

An East Soft official said, “We plan to raise the completeness of the public service by connecting existing services with new vertical areas centered on public, document and search agents.” The official added, “We will expand the scope of use through additional cooperation in travel, commerce, education and security.”

New startups Xenon and MKD submit solo bids.

Xenon and MKD submitted proposals on their own without additional participating institutions. Xenon plans to expand its existing AI agent platform, “Xena,” into a national agent service for AI for Everyone. Xenon plans to use 독파모 as the base model and develop and link specialized agents for public and daily-life sectors at the service layer.

A Xenon official said, “Xena itself is a product planned with AI for Everyone in mind.” The official added, “To launch quickly within the period, we needed to streamline decision-making, and decided to participate alone.”

MKD plans to provide AI for Everyone with its own model, “Keural,” and an AI platform of the same name. It described the platform as bundling a conversational assistant, document storage and AI search, workflow automation agents, and a knowledge-and-AI linked studio, and highlighted an approach that presents the basis for judgment and sources with every answer.

An MKD official said the goal is to expand an AI service for the entire population based on a domestic model that can be directly controlled so the service is not shaken by changes in fees or policies of overseas platforms.