Marking 100 days since taking office, KT President Park Yoon-young emphasized a strategy to build a virtuous cycle of essence and growth, anchored on two pillars: "solid essence" and "certain growth." Through this, he said he will transform KT into an "AX platform company" that leads Korea's AX (AI transformation). He also unveiled plans to invest 18 trillion won in information security, IT, networks, AIDC and submarine cables.
On July 6, Park held his first press briefing at the Pullman Ambassador Seoul Eastpole Hotel in Gwangjin District, Seoul, to mark his 100th day in office and announced the core strategy to leap into an "AX platform company." He defined an "AX platform company" as a corporations that, as a national key telecommunications carrier, takes responsibility for Korea's consolidation now and in the future and achieves overwhelming growth through platforms and innovative services that lead the AX era.
He presented two pillars to drive the "AX platform company": a "solid essence" consisting of Zero Trust information security, information technology (IT) and networks, and a "certain growth" built on AX infrastructure such as AI data centers (DC), AI edge and submarine cables, and on AX services for business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and new growth.
Park was appointed CEO on Mar. 31. Since taking office, he has consistently emphasized the corporations vision of an "AX platform company." In his inaugural address, Park also expressed his ambition to develop KT's identity into an AX platform corporations. After taking office, he reorganized the company to integrate functions that had been dispersed across B2B strategy, business, technology and partnerships, and established the "AX business unit."
To strengthen the "solid essence," the starting point of growth, he announced plans to invest a total of about 12 trillion won over three years in information security, IT and networks. Specifically, he will invest 4 trillion won in information security and IT innovation, and 8 trillion won in networks.
Investment in information security and IT innovation has been doubled from the past three years. Under the Zero Trust principle of "trust nothing and always verify thoroughly," Park is redefining the companywide security framework from the ground up. The four key initiatives are: ▲ securing information security and IT stability through a Zero Trust Security-based, always-on prevention and response framework and a Cloud-Native transition ▲ integrating security operations dispersed across IT and networks and establishing rapid, transparent crisis response through governance integration ▲ fostering top-tier professional talent by separating the chief information security officer (CISO) and chief privacy officer (CPO) roles, recruiting external experts, and doubling information security headcount ▲ collaborating with external experts through a KT-led industry-academia-research advisory council, cooperation with white-hat hackers, and joint research and business development.
In networks, KT will achieve a commanding lead. By proactively diagnosing and improving network quality, it will strengthen customer-perceived quality and fundamental competitiveness, and secure leadership in core future network technologies such as sixth-generation mobile communications (6G), satellites and data center interconsolidation (DCI). Park's plan is to implement airtight asset management by building an automatic asset alignment management system and assigning dedicated personnel for asset updating and inspection of vulnerable facilities. In satellites in particular, Park said KT will secure Korea's communications sovereignty and provide uninterrupted networks even during disasters and security contingencies by being the only domestic operator to directly control and operate multiple satellites in both geostationary orbit (GEO) and low Earth orbit (LEO). Based on more than 50 years of accumulated know-how in satellite control, operation and services, KT operates five GEO satellites and, through global partnerships, will expand into low Earth orbit satellites to lead the domestic satellite ecosystem.
Building on the solid essence, Park will also make "certain growth" concrete through AX infrastructure and service innovation. On the infrastructure side, KT will invest about 5 trillion won to build AI data centers (DC) with a total capacity of 1 GW based on real demand. By organically consolidating central AIDCs that meet large-scale training and inference demand with AI edges expanded near industrial sites, KT plans to provide an ultra-low-latency, real-time inference environment nationwide that is essential in the era of autonomous driving and physical AI. In addition, KT will preemptively invest 1 trillion won in submarine cables to add 90 Tbps of capacity. With the expanded infrastructure, it aims to attract domestic AIDC investment by global big tech firms and become an "Asia AX consolidation hub" that draws global traffic to Korea.
In services, KT will provide industry-specific "B2B AX" execution tools that address core customer needs in finance, public, manufacturing and healthcare. In finance, building on achievements in financial digital transformation (DX), it will expand agentic AI such as AI contact centers (AICC) and sales agents across industries. In the public sector, it will target government AX demand with trust-based AI services grounded in sovereign AI, and in manufacturing and healthcare, it will expand physical AI through participation in government pilot projects, including the Ministry of Science and ICT's robot foundation model demonstrations.
In the B2C (corporations and consumers transaction) arena, KT will introduce hyper-personalized "B2C AX" that gives customers control over products and services. To ease the inconveniences of existing telecom services—such as complex, undifferentiated plans; benefits chosen only within frameworks set by carriers; and cumbersome processes from sign-up to consultations—KT will implement: ▲ plans and benefits designed directly by customers ▲ optimal personalized service proposals based on usage pattern analysis ▲ digitization of the entire customer journey from sign-up to CS (customer service).
KT will ramp up new growth AX businesses, "token factory" and "stablecoin," which will drive sustained growth based on its capabilities and asset.
Building on ultra-precise billing and settlement capabilities accumulated in network operations, Park will combine a nationwide, distributed 1 GW AIDC with a token optimization engine that includes KT's own models. Based on this, KT will build a "token factory" capable of token creation, brokerage and billing support, and grow it into KT's flagship AX business model. KT will also enter the stablecoin-based digital finance platform market. As the domestic market enters a formation stage with legislation and private-sector participation, the KT Group will combine Kbank's 16 million-customer base; BC Card's 3.5 million merchants and payment and settlement capabilities; KT's ultra-low-latency, high-reliability network; and its security infrastructure and partnership ecosystem to cover the entire value chain from issuance to custody and settlement, network transmission and real-world use. The goal is to prepare one step ahead of regulatory changes and roll out the optimal business model the fastest.
KT will accelerate its push into global markets based on accumulated AX business experience and new business models, nurturing them as early growth businesses. With strengthened AX capabilities and a diverse business portfolio, it has mapped out a roadmap to gradually expand its business territory beyond ASEAN to emerging markets (the global South). In addition, Park will continue to seek cooperative measures for mutual win-win with Microsoft, while diversifying partnerships with global AI leaders such as Google and Palantir and with promising domestic AI corporations such as Upstage, Rebellions and Saltlux. The intent is to broaden customer choice and help Korea leap to an AX powerhouse on the back of a more robust AI ecosystem.
"Even in the AX era, when the object of consolidation expands from people-centered to AI-centered, KT's essence of taking responsibility for Korea's consolidation does not change," Park said. "We will further solidify the essence of the telecom business and, on that foundation, achieve certain growth to help Korea leap to an AX powerhouse."