SK Telecom’s CEO Yoo Young-sang actively engaged in ‘AI Sales’ at a global forum where telecommunications companies and tech enterprises from around the world gathered to expand and strengthen the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance’.
On the 18th, local time, SK Telecom announced that it held the ‘2nd Global Telco AI Roundtable’ at the TM Forum event in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is a global telecommunications and technology consortium.
This event serves as a significant follow-up to the founding assembly of the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance’ held at MWC2024 in Barcelona, Spain, last February.
The ‘Global Telco AI Alliance’, launched in November last year, is a coalition of global telecommunications companies, including SK Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, e&, Singtel, and SoftBank, dedicated to the joint development of telco LLM and collaboration in AI-related businesses.
During the roundtable event with representatives from five alliance member companies and over 250 telecommunications and tech industry stakeholders, CEO Yoo presented the vision of innovation and collaboration in AI that global telecommunications firms can achieve.
On this day, CEO Yoo expressed, “It is significant to share the specific business plans and visions of the joint venture established by the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance’ at the TM Forum event, where 800 global telecommunications companies and tech firms from 110 countries are gathered,” adding that “this announcement will become an important milestone for AI innovation and growth.”
He continued, “As global companies rapidly restructure their business strategies around AI, the efforts of the Global Telco AI Alliance are bearing fruit in securing a leading position in the global AI ecosystem.”
CEO Yoo iterated, “The common goal of the alliance is to achieve AI-based business innovation and ultimately provide customers worldwide with AI innovation experiences,” stating that he desires telecommunications companies to embark on disruptive innovations beyond just AI data centers (AIDC) and ‘AI personal assistants’.
He emphasized that “the more we consolidate the technology and capabilities of global telecommunications companies, the faster the pace of innovation will be,” predicting that “the Global Telco AI Alliance will accelerate the digital transformation of telecommunications companies, foster business model innovation, and contribute to solving societal issues, thereby opening up a new path for unseen AI innovation.”
In closing, CEO Yoo acknowledged that while AI aims to innovate daily life and create opportunities across industries, it also brings considerable risks and called for balanced efforts by companies to cooperate in establishing governance for safe AI and to achieve sustainable AI innovation, resonating with attendees.
Following CEO Yoo’s opening speech, Jeong Seok-geun, Head of Global/AI Tech Division, took the stage to share SKT’s experience in developing ‘Telco LLM’ with global telecommunications companies and discussed various cases where it has been applied in the Korean telecom industry to encourage participation in the alliance.
Executives from SKT, Deutsche Telekom, e&, and Singtel subsequently took to the stage for an enthusiastic panel discussion on the future vision of the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance’ and fostering AI cooperation.
Along with Jeong Seok-geun, also participating in the discussion were Jan Hofmann, Head of AI Technology Center at Deutsche Telekom, Harrison Leung, Group Chief Strategy Officer at e&, and William Wu, Group Chief Information Technology Officer at Singtel, discussing various innovative possibilities that telecommunications companies can explore through AI.
Particularly, Eric Davis, in charge of AI Tech Collaboration at SKT, showcased a demo where SKT’s Telco LLM analyzed conversation content between a customer and a counselor at a customer service center, summarizing it and organizing follow-up tasks for the counselor, earning applause from the audience. This demonstration highlighted the successful model of a telco-specialized LLM assisting tasks that are difficult for counselors to handle swiftly.
On the 19th, local time, key executives from the five alliance member companies gathered to sign the main contract for establishing the joint venture of the ‘Global Telco AI Alliance,’ marking the initial groundwork for expanding the AI ecosystem among global telecommunications firms.
These five companies stated that they would actively collaborate to confirm the establishment of the joint venture and specific business plans.
The joint venture plans to pursue initiatives focused on ▲joint development and commercialization of Telco LLM ▲multilingual learning and performance enhancement of LLMs ▲AI personalization services.
SKT CEO Yoo Young-sang concluded, “We will continue to be game changers leading the global AI market in collaboration with AI players both domestically and internationally,” highlighting that “through bold challenges with the Global Telco AI Alliance, we aim to evolve into a true global AI company.”
By Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr