KT Corporation and Microsoft Corp. have announced a five-year multibillion-dollar partnership aimed at accelerating AI innovation in Korea. This collaboration involves KT investing in AI, cloud technologies, and IT business while Microsoft commits resources to infrastructure and personnel. The partnership is designed to advance KT’s AI and ICT transformation and boost AI services in Korea.
Since their agreement in June, the companies have been discussing ways to strengthen their relationship and define key areas of cooperation. The partnership will focus on five main areas: developing customized AI solutions for Korea, delivering Korean sovereign cloud solutions, establishing an AX-specialized service company, advancing AI R&D capabilities across Korea, and transforming KT’s AICT.
KT and Microsoft plan to collaborate on engineering projects to create a customized version of GPT-4o using KT's data on Korean culture and industries. These models will be applied internally at KT as well as for consumer-facing applications like customer service chatbots. They will also develop industry-specific AI solutions for B2B customers in various sectors. Additionally, KT will use Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio to create custom AI agents for both consumer use cases such as education, healthcare, and infotainment, as well as business applications.
Shinhan Bank commented on the partnership: “We are delighted with the partnership between KT and Microsoft, which presents a valuable opportunity to enhance our digital competitiveness,” adding that they aim to deliver innovative services using the specialized KT GPT model.
The two companies are also working together on Secure Public Cloud services built on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty. This initiative aims to provide secure data management solutions for public sector clients while ensuring compliance with local regulations.
To further accelerate AI transformation in Korea, KT plans to establish an AX-specialized service company that will offer advanced Microsoft Cloud and AI expertise. This new entity will initially serve the Korean market but has plans for expansion into broader markets including ASEAN.
Microsoft will support KT in setting up a co-innovation center focused on driving technology-driven AI transformation within Korea. This center aims to help businesses develop new AI solutions using Microsoft's technology alongside KT’s specialists. Additionally, there are plans for fostering new startups through investments from both companies.
For future collaborations, leaders from both organizations will explore research initiatives focusing on network modernization, healthcare-related AI advancements, industry adoption of artificial intelligence technologies among other high-impact projects.
