KT to make AI, media-focused reshuffle in July

KT Corp., South Korea’s largest telecom service provider, is slated for an organizational reshuffle next month to reinforce its business-to-business (B2B) services with a focus on media and artificial intelligence, according to telecom industry sources on Friday.

The timing of the reshuffle was unexpected, but the overhaul will affect only a few divisions to combine some overlapping business units for management efficiency, the sources said. KT carried out regular management reshuffles in November.

"We have pivoted on telecom business, treating the others as peripheral," said a KT official. "We will expand AI and media services to become a more balanced and healthier company."

The busines reorganization will be disclosed at a chief executive meeting of KT's subsidiaries on June 27. It will not involve mass job cuts. Last November, it let go of 20% of its executives.

The reshuffles will reflect its business collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Early this month, KT formed a strategic alliance with US Big Tech players to jointly develop AI, cloud and IT services tailored for the Korean market.

KT will unveil detailed implementation strategies for their collaboration by September.

This year, KT has been on a hiring spree to recruit up to 1,000 talent for IT technology and digital media content development.

TELECOM SERVICES ON THE DECLINE

The telecom giant is aiming to create greater synergy from media subsidiaries by strengthening their collaboration.

Its media units include KT SkyLife Co., a satellite broadcasting provider; KT Studio Genie Co., an intermediary holding company; e-book platform Millie Seojae Co.; and Storywiz Co., a platform for web novels and webtoons, or digital comics.

In April this year, it unveiled Magic Platform, a website where users can create videos with generative AI.

Its mainstay telecom business growth is stalling. Its mobile telecom service users remain in the 240 million range. Its wired telecom and internet TV services have shriveled.

KT's operating profit margin has kept at a single-digit level. In the first quarter of this year, its operating profit margin stood at 7.61%, little changed from the same period of last year.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.