KT expects to expand its AI-related offerings in the fields of logistics, robots and healthcare
Korean telco KT announced plans to invest KRW7 trillion ($5.4 billion) to develop a large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) system and expand AI-based services by 2025, Korean newspaper Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
The carrier said it expects to achieve this by expanding its AI-related offerings in the fields of logistics, robots and healthcare.
KT also said it expects to generate at least KRW1 trillion of annual revenue via its AI business by 2025. The company said it already had cumulative orders worth over KRW800 billion in its AI segments, including orders from its AI contact center (AICC) and logistics. AICC is a customer service center that incorporates AI algorithms and machine learning techniques to automate various aspects of customer interactions and support.
“Four trillion won will be spent to acquire technologies for large-scale AI, 2 trillion won will be spent to advance AI infrastructure and related cloud services and 1 trillion won will be spent to uncover new models for AI-related services in sectors of robot, education and healthcare,” said Song Jae-ho, vice president of KT’s AI/DX convergence business division.
The report also highlighted that the five sectors that KT is initially focusing in terms of AI are AICC, logistics, robotics, healthcare and education.
“In terms of revenue, AICC already constitutes a considerable part of the company’s total revenue — KRW350 billion will be from the center by 2025; KRW500 billion from logistics, KRW200 billion from robotics, KRW200 billion from education and KRW50 billion from healthcare — so in total, about KRW1.3 trillion of yearly revenue will be streamed from AI businesses,” the executive said.
KT also aims to diversify its AI robot lineup by expanding its line of delivery robot models that can function outdoors. The firm said that logistics robots will make deliveries in factories and logistics centers while other robots will be set for the delivery of heavy objects in the agriculture industry, according to the report.
Earlier this year, KT announced the commercial launch of a new solution, which it calls its “5G Infrastructure Intelligent Control Solution”, that is based on artificial intelligence technology.
The Asian operator noted that this solution is designed to control 5G infrastructure with the aim of making that infrastructure more efficient and stable.
KT’s new solution is equipped with AI technology to detect abnormalities in the status of networks and equipment in real-time. By comparing dozens of equipment quality data in real-time with pre-learned data, the new solution can determine whether the equipment is abnormal or not with a single indicator, KT said.
Also, the solution also displays the status of access and core equipment in five stages, making it easy to “intuitively check the equipment and the degree of abnormality” that occurred, the Korean telco added.
The company highlighted that companies and institutions without expertise in network management can use KT’s 5G solution to operate 5G networks without any “burden.”
