SK CEO Chey Tae-won Meets New Employees: "Utilizing AI in Traditional Business"

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, attended a dialogue with new members held at the SK Telecom Talent Development Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, emphasizing the 'AI transition.' The photo shows Chairman Choi Tae-won engaging in the dialogue with new members. Photo by SK Group [Image source=Yonhap News]

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group, met with new employees and emphasized 'AI competitiveness.'

According to the business community on the 1st, Chairman Choi recently stated at the 'Dialogue with New Members' held at the SK Telecom Talent Development Center in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, "Even traditional business areas need active utilization of artificial intelligence (AI). When a new model emerges, many aspects of the existing system must change, and this presents an opportunity for us. We must seize it at a very fast pace."

The dialogue with new members is an event started by the late Chairman Choi Jong-hyun to directly explain the group's management philosophy and vision to new employees. It has been held since 1979.

At this event, Chairman Choi shared opinions with new employees about the future of the group's AI business. He said, "SK affiliates must transform into AI companies," citing two advantages of AI utilization: strengthening competitiveness in their sectors and changing the money-making business models themselves.

Chairman Choi urged, "We must approach from the end customer perspective." He explained, "In the case of SK Telecom, AI Assist (A.Dot) customers overlap with those who use phone services," adding, "We need to combine AI and telecommunications well to create future businesses." He also added, "SK Hynix needs to consider what role it will play in the entire AI infrastructure beyond just making AI semiconductors well."

To operate sustainable AI data centers, it is necessary to establish eco-friendly energy production, supply, and storage solutions. There is a need to integrate SK’s strength in the energy industry. In particular, Chairman Choi emphasized the need to combine portfolios such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), energy storage systems (ESS), and smart grids.

SK Group is promoting business restructuring centered on AI infrastructure. At the management strategy meeting held at the end of June, they revealed a blueprint to place greater investment emphasis on the AI sector.

SK Group plans to secure an additional 80 trillion won in resources by 2026 and invest 103 trillion won over the next five years in AI and semiconductor fields, including high-bandwidth memory (HBM), centered on SK Hynix. SK Telecom and SK Broadband will also invest about 3.4 trillion won over five years to build AI data center infrastructure, anticipating explosive demand.

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