SKT CEO Jeong Jaeheon Unveils "Growth Gear Strategy" to Take the Lead in Token Economy

Outlined future direction at employee town hall on October 8
Ventures into the "Token Gateway" business sector

SK Telecom CEO Jung Jaeheon held a town hall for employees at SKT Tower on the 8th and announced the “SKT Growth Gear Strategy,” which aligns telecommunications and AI toward a shared goal. Provided by SKT.

SK Telecom CEO Jeong Jae-heon said, "We will use AI technology and AX (AI transformation) as common driving forces to organically connect our key businesses—telecommunications, AI services and AI infrastructure—and take the lead in the token economy gateway."

On October 8, CEO Jeong held a town hall for employees at SKT Tower and announced the "SKT Growth Gear Strategy," which brings telecommunications and AI together under a single goal.

"The focus of AI competition is expanding beyond models and infrastructure to an ecosystem that can reliably generate, supply and use tokens," CEO Jeong said. "This presents a new growth opportunity for SKT, which has been bringing together its telecommunications and AI capabilities."

He emphasized the importance of creating synergies between the two distinct fields, saying, "AI can address challenges facing telecommunications, including hyper-personalization, security and next-generation networks, while telecommunications can provide the foundation for extending the intelligence created by AI to customers and industries at large."

In its telecommunications business, SKT aims to increase customer value through AI-based hyper-personalization and strengthen its network competitiveness for the AI era by proactively building AI-friendly autonomous networks.

In its AI services business, SKT will pursue an integrated approach to addressing customers' diverse needs, from service development to operations, across the B2B and B2C sectors. Drawing on its network capabilities and full-stack AI expertise, the company will expand into new AI markets, including ▲AI for defense and the public sector ▲industry-specific AI and ▲AI for everyone.

In AI infrastructure, SKT will expand its data center (DC) and submarine cable businesses with SK Horizon and SK Hyper, while rapidly advancing development of gigawatt-scale AI DC projects. It will also gradually expand its AI factory developed in collaboration with NVIDIA, with the goal of launching commercial services next year.

Frontier Employees to Be Deployed to Key Roles Through Internal Recruitment

SKT will also break new ground with its "Token Gateway" business. The Token Gateway will serve as a control center that manages how businesses and customers use AI and connects them to the optimal AI models and infrastructure.

SKT also plans to continue improving its work practices and organizational culture. Regarding the company's current AX efforts, CEO Jeong said, "Through various initiatives, we have achieved greater efficiency, including automating repetitive tasks and speeding up work. We must now move toward redesigning our work practices and organizational structure around AX to maximize organizational productivity." The company will soon use an internal recruitment process to place frontier employees with diverse experience and capabilities in key roles, and strengthen synergies between its core businesses.

"Telecommunications and AI are a single growth engine that work together to shape SKT's future," CEO Jeong said. "Let's sustain a one-team culture that maximizes organizational productivity and synergies through AX and accelerates growth."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.