South Korean telco large SK Telecom is making massive modifications at its new AI division, AI CIC, simply weeks after it was launched. Employees employed by the unit are being supplied a voluntary retirement program as a part of a broader effort to convey collectively the corporate’s varied AI-related divisions, SK Telecom confirmed to iinfoai.
“In late September, SK Telecom introduced the launch of the AI CIC (Firm-in-Firm) unit and confirmed that detailed organizational restructuring can be specified by the top of October,” a spokesperson at SK Telecom advised iinfoai. “This particular retirement program is totally a supportive measure and isn’t supposed as a restructuring or downsizing measure.”
The voluntary retirement program won’t contain pressured layoffs and is supposed to help staff whose roles, organizations, or work areas might change, the spokesperson mentioned. Workers who decide to stick with the corporate could also be reassigned to regional workplaces.
Particulars of the voluntary retirement program have been communicated to employees throughout all expertise ranges, together with each junior and senior staff, trade sources advised iinfoai. The AI unit has about 1,000 staff, per media reviews.
AI CIC is supposed to convey collectively SK Telecom’s varied AI-related models below a centralized group, per the spokesperson. “This integration entails streamlining overlapping roles and capabilities, which can inevitably result in modifications corresponding to position transitions, organizational realignments, or relocations,” they mentioned.
The brand new division will oversee the event of SK Telecom’s private AI agent, A. (pronounced “A-dot”), in addition to its AI information heart operations, enterprise AI enterprise, and international AI partnerships and investments.
Severance packages are reportedly anticipated to fluctuate based mostly on staff’ tenure and place, however the spokesperson advised iinfoai the corporate has set no such inner targets. “As participation is totally voluntary, it’s troublesome at this stage to foretell [how many employees] it might impression on the group as an entire,” the spokesperson mentioned.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
The restructuring comes as SK Telecom seeks to streamline operations and enhance effectivity, with a selected give attention to AI. The corporate plans for the AI division to file annual income of ₩5 trillion (round $3.5 billion) by 2030, and expects AI-driven B2C and B2B companies in addition to associated infrastructure to drive that development.
The telecom large just lately unveiled an AI infrastructure effort, providing Nvidia Blackwell GPUs-as-a-service, and earlier this month partnered with OpenAI to develop AI information facilities in southwestern Korea as a part of the “Stargate Korea” initiative.
