Companies integrate AI units prevent overlapping investments

SK C&C Co. CI

Major companies with artificial intelligence (AI) businesses are centralizing the related personnel from their subsidiaries, as they aim to concentrate research and development (R&D) capabilities at headquarters and maximize AI business synergies by streamlining redundant business areas.

Centralizing AI investments also allows for more efficient management of investment costs amid the challenges of monetizing AI business.

According to multiple sources from the information technology (AI) industry on Sunday, SK Group’s telecommunications company SK telecom Co. and IT subsidiary SK C&C Co. formed an enterprise AI business taskforce at the end of June 2024 and have already appointed personnel to this department. It also created an enterprise AI TF, which is headed by SK telecom CEO Ryu Yoong-sang, within the ICT committee of the SK Supex Council.

The establishment of the enterprise AI business TF by SK telecom and SK C&C is intended to create synergies in B2B business for AI monetization. The move is expected to reduce redundant investments in AI sectors such as AI contact centers and to streamline operations.

The enterprise AI business TF consists of two organizations, AIX Promotion and AIX Tech. The AIX Promotion organization is led by Shin syong-sik, head of SK telecom’s enterprise AI CO, while the AIX Tech organization is led by Park June, head of SK C&C’s DX division. The IT AIX Promotion Team and Manufacturing AIX Promotion Team fall under the AIX Promotion organization.

The AIX Tech organization includes the AI Platform Team, Large Language Model Team, and AICC Tech Team, accelerating commercialization in each area. This setup reflects the consolidation of SK telecom’s focus on AI company transformation, such as developing its own LLM, with SK C&C’s expertise in B2B projects, thus boosting AI business at the SK Group level.

Similar trends are observed among major companies pursuing AI and Kakao, which transferred its AI R&D business from its AI subsidiary Kakao Brain to its headquarters in June 2024, exemplifies this trend.

Kakao absorbed Kakao Brain’s personnel and established a dedicated AI organization called Kanana at its headquarters. Kanana is divided into Kanana Alpha, focusing on AI model development, and Kanana X, focusing on AI services, with plans to launch AI services within the year. Kakao has recently been concentrating on developing AI services based on KakaoTalk following the termination of its AI image generation service, Karlo AI.

NHN also centralized its AI organization at its headquarters in March, moving the AI division of its major subsidiary, NHN Cloud, to the headquarters. The move aims to focus AI technology R&D at the headquarters while NHN Cloud concentrates on its core areas of cloud and data centers.

LG Group’s approach also involves developing the AI model, EXAONE, at LG AI Research Institute, with subsidiaries such as LG Uplus and LG CNS applying EXAONE in their operations. For its part, Naver Corp. manages AI research and development via Naver Cloud, which is developing HyberCLOVA X, while centralizing cost management at the headquarters. This centralized management is crucial for handling the substantial costs associated with AI and seeking synergies across subsidiaries.