SK Telecom AI strategic expansion

SK Telecom CEO Jae-heon Jeong has been outlining the company’s strategic focus on artificial intelligence (AI) through academic engagement and international industry cooperation.

Initially, Jeong addressed students at Seoul National University, emphasizing the necessity of ‘Sovereign AI’ to maintain independence from foreign technologies. He introduced the ‘AX J-curve’ concept to describe the productivity challenges during AI transformation, noting that organizations must navigate a ‘valley of discomfort’ to achieve long-term gains. He also highlighted that human competitiveness will increasingly depend on insight and empathy as AI handles more technical tasks.

Expanding this focus to the regional stage, Jeong attended the GSMA M360 ASEAN event in Malaysia. There, he discussed transforming telecommunications infrastructure into AI-centric systems as part of an ‘AI full stack’ strategy. This initiative aims to position SK Telecom as an ‘Asia AI infrastructure hub’ by managing everything from infrastructure to models and services. Discussions also covered digital trust, information security, and technical sovereignty through roundtables with regional telecommunications and tech executives.