"I was always happiest when taking on new businesses. Now, based on my experience leading digital transformation (DX) at KT, I am pioneering a new market of DX for trial evidence documents and AI transformation (AX)."
Yun Kyung-lim (62), former KT president, stated accordingly in an interview on the 1st at the A2D2 office in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. In Nov. 2024, Yun took the role of chair of the board at the legal tech startup "A2D2," which he founded, advising on the company's mid- to long-term strategy. A2D2 developed "AiLex," a service that digitizes the vast analog legal data produced in trials—such as litigation documents, rulings, and evidence—using artificial intelligence (AI), and automatically classifies and summarizes it.
After joining Dacom, the predecessor of LG Uplus, in 1988, Yun joined as a founding member of Hanaro Telecom (now SK Broadband) in 1997 and became the youngest executive at age 35 in 1998. While at Hanaro Telecom, he led the world's first commercial service for high-speed internet (ADSL) and Korea's first commercialization of internet phone (VoIP).
After moving to KT in 2006, he launched Korea's first internet TV (IPTV) in 2008, just two years later, disrupting a domestic media market then centered on terrestrial and cable TV. In 2010, he moved to the CJ Group to lead group-wide business planning and later served as executive vice president overseeing management support at CJ HelloVision. Returning to KT in 2014, he headed the Future Convergence Business Promotion Office (executive vice president), overseeing the development of new businesses and future convergence businesses for the KT Group. He was the one who drafted KT's new business portfolio at the time, including big data, Internet of Things (IoT), AI, healthcare, and connected cars. In 2019, he moved to Hyundai Motor Group to establish future mobility strategy, and in 2021 he returned to KT and was appointed head of Group Transformation (president), overseeing KT's future new businesses and digital transformation.
In Mar. 2023, he was nominated as the sole candidate for KT's next chief executive officer (CEO) but voluntarily resigned ahead of final appointment at the shareholders meeting. Since then, while serving as an advisor to KT and supporting youth venture startups, he has focused on founding A2D2 and refining its business model. The following is a Q&A with Yun.
—I'm curious about the background for founding the company.
"The startup idea came from my criminal trial experience. After I voluntarily stepped down as KT's final CEO candidate, I went through an investigation and trial, and had to personally flip through records and evidence totaling 25,000 pages. At that time, I began to ask, 'Why isn't there a service that automatically processes this massive analog data?' There were times when acquaintances brought 100,000 or 400,000 pages of evidence and asked for help, and I thought there must be many people facing similar difficulties. So I decided to start a company, thinking that by providing an efficient service using AI, we could help people without money or power defend themselves and contribute to ensuring they receive a proper trial."
—How exactly does it help with trials?
"Digital transformation is a hot topic across society, but the courts and prosecution are exceptions. In criminal trials, even now, as a rule, evidence documents are delivered to defendants on paper. Indictments, judgments, and other documents required for criminal proceedings are also produced on paper, and trials are, in principle, conducted based on these. In 2019, the Seoul Central District Court introduced a pilot service to view electronic copies of criminal case records, but in practice it remains limited to viewing image files. Files converted into PDF or image formats are nothing more than paper documents displayed on a screen.
Civil trials adopted electronic documents earlier, but the same limitation of image-only viewing remains. Such image files are not searchable, and their content is not easily grasped at a glance, so lawyers have consistently struggled when preparing lawsuits. We believed it was essential to digitize the vast litigation documents into structured data and analyze them with AI to substantively assist defendants' right to defense. We set the monthly fee per case at 19,000 won because we wanted to provide practical help to people without money or power."
—You've effectively opened a new market for DX and AX of trial evidence documents.
"I think there is an aspect of creating new demand where none existed. As word spread in legal circles about functions that digitize evidence, quickly summarize it, collect and display only the desired information, and even perform analysis, more law firms have been inquiring about the service. It's also a business I could not have attempted without my experience leading digital and AI transformation at KT. Recently, our business potential was recognized, and starting on the 3rd of this month we were invited to the '2025 Korea Legal Industry Expo' at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul, where we presented AiLex, our DX and AX service for trial evidence documents, to the public."
—Why are you serving only as chair of the board instead of managing the company directly?
"Our company has two CEOs. CEO Jang Il-jun oversees business, and CEO Kim Yun-woo is in charge of technology; both serve as inside directors on the board. Including me, there are three board members in total. My role is to help the two CEOs manage the company as freely as possible. I see my job as advising on strategy based on my past experience. In a way, I am someone offering advice from a position closer to an outside director, and I do not think it is desirable for me to step to the forefront and excessively intervene in the inside directors' management."
—Your team's résumés are impressive.
"CEO Jang Il-jun holds an MBA from Harvard and worked in Asia IBD at Goldman Sachs. CEO Kim Yun-woo handled AI DX work at the KT Group. Chief technology officer (CTO) Gong Seung-hyun handled AI technologies at SAS, a global data analytics company. Chief legal officer (CLO) Lee Young-ju has new business development experience at IT companies and is licensed as an attorney in the United States and Korea. Lee is also a partner attorney at the law firm One. They were all high performers in their respective fields, and they willingly joined our company. I believe it is because they agreed with the founding purpose of helping defend the trial rights of people without money or power."
—If you digitize trial evidence and run it through AI, aren't there security concerns?
"We use Google 'Gemini' as our AI tool, but we process data only within a closed network (private cloud). Because we operate on a network isolated from the outside, I can say you can rest assured from a security standpoint."
—Any plans for overseas expansion?
"We are first reviewing entry into Japan, where the legal system is similar to Korea's. We are discussing specifics with a local partner."
—You were considered a strong candidate to be KT's next CEO, but we heard you didn't apply.
"As someone who directly experienced the illegal and unjust outside pressure and the board restructuring during the CEO selection process three years ago at KT, applying this time did not align with my convictions."
—Why did you suddenly resign voluntarily at the time?
"I believe it was a decision for KT's survival and future. On Mar. 7, 2023, immediately after I was selected as KT's final CEO candidate, a civic group filed a complaint, and the next day the Fair Trade Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office launched an investigation. I felt that, at that level, it was clear pressure. Messages also came through various channels at the time saying 'the mood in Yongsan isn't good' and 'it would be better to resign quickly.' At this moment of great AI upheaval, KT stands at a very important crossroads. Even so, the recurring outside interference every time a CEO is appointed should stop now. I believe it is most desirable for the next CEO to be someone from inside KT who knows the company well."