Aiming to Become an AI Powerhouse

Lee Pil-jae, head of the Marketing Division at KT, announces KT’s AI strategy at KT Square in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on Oct. 30.

KT has put forward a plan to invest 300 billion won in artificial intelligence (AI) for the next four years and nurture 1,000 AI professionals. The telecom giant will also expand handsets loaded with its AI engines to 100 million units by 2025. KT’s vision is to lead a super-intelligent society based on these initiatives.

KT disclosed its vision at a news conference held at KT Square in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on Oct. 30. To expand its AI business, KT plans to focus on four areas -- global, industry, work space, and future generations. Its first goal is to make Giga Genie a popular worldwide service. KT is preparing to launch AI hotel services in Asia and the Middle East starting with a pilot AI hotel project in Cebu, the Philippines in November. The company plans to provide technology consulting to MTS, Russia's No. 1 mobile carrier.


In the industrial sector, KT will apply AI to factories, security and energy businesses, and customer centers. In factories, KT will boost productivity and prevent accidents with smart video platforms that combine AI with its intelligent video analysis technology, 5G communication networks and big data.

In the security business, KT will utilize AI for the selective recognition of people and things and the detection of unauthorized intrusions. In the energy sector, KT will elevate the energy efficiency of a building based on an AI-based integrated energy management platform. The AI ​​Customer Center in a tentative operation will begin to provide services on a full scale in 2020.

Moreover, KT plans to raise efficiency by introducing AI to its workplaces. To this end, KT is preparing AI work processing services that can replace human workers’ simple repetitive tasks. These services includes recording automatic meeting minutes, checking product defects based on AI, and extracting usage statistics among others. KT will strengthen AI services for future generations. The AI ​​Makers Kit, the AI Edu Pack, and the AI Vitamin Projects are good examples. KT aims to educate more than 5,000 people by 2020 through the AI ​​Vitamin project.

On the day, KT showcased about 20 fundamental AI technologies in four intelligence areas. The four are emotional and language intelligence; visual and behavioral intelligence; analysis and judgment intelligence; and prediction and reasoning intelligence. KT plans to develop services that will lead the AI ​​ecosystem based on these fundamental technologies. It is also aiming to expand the number of AI terminals equipped with its AI engine Genie to 100 million by 2025.

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