SK Telecom is joining hands with Japan's SoftBank and the Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES) to develop a methodology to quantitatively evaluate the social value created by artificial intelligence (AI) and information and communication technology (ICT).
SK Telecom said on the 9th that it signed a business agreement with SoftBank and CSES to cooperate on measuring social value. The signing ceremony was attended by Genda Yasuyuki, SoftBank corporate head; Na Seok-kwon, CSES CEO; and Eom Jong-hwan, SKT head of sustainability management.
The collaboration comes as AI, beyond boosting productivity, affects a range of areas including social safety nets, digital inclusion, and customer convenience, increasing the need to objectively measure the social utility created by corporations. The three companies plan to measure the social value generated by each company's AI and ICT products and services and to jointly establish a standardized evaluation framework that can be used in global markets.
To that end, they will pursue case studies, publish joint reports, and host forums, and will also cooperate to spread the measurement methodology with a focus on Korea and Japan. Since the first agreement in Apr. 2024, the three companies have continued workshops and case presentations, disclosed SoftBank's social value measurement results, and conducted comparative analysis with SKT indicators.
Since 2018, SK Telecom has measured the social value of its overall corporate activities. In particular, it has focused on identifying the social value of AI and ICT-based services such as care for vulnerable groups, disaster response, and crime victim prevention, and since 2021 it has disclosed even the detailed indicator formulas.
Eom Jong-hwan, SKT head of sustainability management, said, "There needs to be an objective framework that can explain the social utility and challenges created by AI," and added, "We will develop a standard methodology for measuring social value suited to the AI era."