South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom has made major changes to its new AI division, AI CIC, just weeks after its launch. SK Telecom confirmed to TechCrunch that staff employed in the division are being offered a voluntary retirement program as part of a broader effort to integrate the company’s various AI-related divisions.
“In late September, SK Telecom announced the launch of the AI CIC (Company-in-Company) division and confirmed that detailed organizational restructuring will take shape by the end of October,” an SK Telecom spokesperson told TechCrunch. “This special severance plan is strictly a support measure and is not intended for restructuring or layoffs.”
The voluntary redundancy program does not involve compulsory redundancies and is aimed at supporting employees who may change roles, organizations or locations, the spokesperson said. Employees who choose to remain with the company may be reassigned to a local branch.
Industry sources told TechCrunch that details of the voluntary retirement program have been communicated to staff of all experience levels, including junior and senior employees. According to media reports, the AI division has about 1,000 employees.
According to a spokesperson, AI CIC aims to integrate SK Telecom’s various AI-related departments under a unified organization. “This integration will include the rationalization of overlapping roles and functions and may necessitate changes such as role transitions, organizational restructuring and redeployment,” they said.
The new division will oversee the development of SK Telecom’s personal AI agent A. (pronounced “E-dot”), AI data center operations, enterprise AI business, and global AI partnerships and investments.
Severance packages are reportedly expected to vary based on an employee’s tenure and position, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company has not set any such internal goals. “Participation is completely voluntary, so it is difficult to predict at this stage how many employees will be affected across the organization,” the spokesperson said.
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The reorganization comes as SK Telecom aims to streamline operations and improve efficiency, with a particular focus on AI. The company plans for its AI sector to record annual revenue of 5 trillion won (approximately $3.5 billion) by 2030, and expects AI-driven B2C and B2B services and related infrastructure to drive that growth.
The telecom giant recently announced its AI infrastructure efforts with Nvidia Blackwell GPUs as a service, and earlier this month it partnered with OpenAI to develop an AI data center in southwestern South Korea as part of its “Stargate Korea” initiative.
