[New Year's Message] SKT Yoo Young-sang "In an Era of Uncertainty, Let's Strengthen Our Foundation and Advance as a Global AI Company"

Yoo Young-sang SK Telecom President New Year's Address
Emphasizing Maximizing Competitiveness, AI Revenue, and Flexible Corporate Culture

Yu Young-sang, President of SK Telecom, stated in his New Year's address, "In an era of uncertainty, let us prepare for crises by strengthening our fundamentals and boldly move forward with wisdom and passion toward the vision of becoming a 'Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Company.'"

Yoo Young-sang, President of SK Telecom / Photo by SKT

According to SKT Newsroom on the 2nd, President Yu shared this message in his New Year's address to SKT employees. He said, "The year 2025 is expected to face unprecedented crises," citing causes such as ▲global economic instability and geopolitical issues ▲domestic economic recession ▲accelerated competition in AI technology supremacy and investment.

He then emphasized three goals to overcome this year's challenges. First, President Yu urged achieving maximum core competitiveness (OE). He explained, "We must enhance competitiveness by eliminating unnecessary elements while considering both short-term profitability and long-term growth, utilizing AI and digital transformation (AT·DT) technologies," adding, "Ultimately, we will completely transform the existing telecommunications business paradigm through AI."

He also stressed the need to produce tangible results in AI. President Yu said, "Building on the establishment of the SKT-SKB-SK C&C synergy system for B2B AI business promoted in 2024, and proving the feasibility of B2C services through A. Dot and the global AI agent Aster, in 2025, we will ensure that our AI leads to substantial revenue growth."

He continued, "Let us create meaningful achievements across the entire AI value chain, including the AI data center (DC), GPU cloud service (GPUaaS), edge AI business for building the 'AI infrastructure superhighway,' as well as AI transformation (AIX) solutions and AI personal assistant (PAA)."

Lastly, President Yu called for establishing a fierce, solid, yet flexible corporate culture. He emphasized, "Based on the Supex spirit, let us execute fiercely while securing flexibility through horizontal communication that allows free public speaking (Speak-out). The business, shared infrastructure, and staff organizations must unite as one to build strong teamwork."

President Yu concluded, "We are walking a path no one has taken before," and urged, "In difficult situations, we must change; when we change, there is a path to success; and when success is achieved, it endures. Let us remember the saying 'Gungjeukbyeon (窮則變), Byeonjeuktong (變則通), Tongjeokgu (通則久)' and overcome this challenging path together."