SK Telecom AI Division Restructuring: Voluntary Retirement Offered After Launch
So, SK Telecom, a big player in South Korea's telecom scene, is shaking things up at its AI division, AI CIC. Can you imagine launching a new division and then, weeks later, offering your staff a chance to voluntarily retire? It sounds unusual, right?
The company says this isn't a downsizing move, but more of a way to support employees as they consolidate their various AI-related teams. It's like when you reorganize your closet, and some things just don't fit anymore. You don't necessarily want to get rid of them, but you need to find a new place for them.
Basically, they're trying to bring all their AI projects under one roof. This means some roles might change, and some people might even have to move to different offices. Because of that, they are offering this retirement program to staff at all levels, from newbies to senior employees.
The AI CIC unit is now responsible for some pretty big things, including their personal AI assistant called A. (or "A-dot"), AI data centers, business AI solutions, global partnerships and investments with other companies in the AI landscape. The company expects big revenue numbers from AI in the next few years - around $3.5 billion by 2030!
That is a big ambition! To achieve that, they are betting on AI-driven services for both consumers and businesses, as well as the infrastructure that powers it all. In fact, they recently started offering Nvidia Blackwell GPUs as a service and teamed up with OpenAI to build AI data centers in Korea.
While details on severance packages are a little vague, I think the main goal here is streamlining operations and focusing on AI. It seems like SK Telecom wants to go big on AI, and they're willing to make some tough decisions to get there. I'm curious to see how this all plays out and what kind of AI innovations they come up with in the future.
Source: TechCrunch