[Edaily Reporter Yun Junghoon ] The government’s independent AI foundation model project consortium (hereinafter referred to as the “SKT Elite Team”), led bySKTelecom(017670), is accelerating the AI transformation (AX) across the entire industry by recruiting a large number of new participating companies.

SKT announced on the 14th that “SK AX” and “Technomatrix” have newly joined its consortium, further strengthening its competitiveness in expanding its proprietary AI models across industries.

The newly joined SK AX is an AI transformation specialist that drives AI innovation for clients across various industries, including manufacturing, telecommunications, media, semiconductors, and finance. Within SKT’s elite team, it will be responsible for identifying B2B AX use cases, conducting proof-of-concepts, and establishing a framework for industrial adoption. Currently, SK AX is utilizing its proprietary AI model, “A.X,” to support improved work productivity and agent builder functions.

Technometrix, another participating partner, is a company specializing in the optimization of AI model operations (AI/ML/FM-Ops). Drawing on its accumulated modeling expertise in the manufacturing and financial sectors, it is responsible for building systems that ensure proprietary AI models do not remain confined to the lab but are continuously operated and improved in industrial settings.

Taking the recruitment of these new partners as an opportunity, SKT’s elite team plans to maximize synergy among participating organizations by subdividing the collaboration framework into four tracks: △Models and Infrastructure, △Pioneering Research, △Data, and △Service Expansion.

In fact, based on this collaboration, the consortium recently built its proprietary foundation model, “A.X K2,” for the second-stage evaluation. A.X K2 is characterized by a significant enhancement of “agentic capabilities,” which enable large language models (LLMs) to understand complex tasks and plan and execute them autonomously. With an eye toward deployment in industrial settings, the model also prioritizes openness and efficiency.

Going forward, SKT’s elite team plans to expand the reach of its proprietary AI models across a wide range of industries, including public sector, defense, manufacturing, gaming, and mobility.

Concrete manufacturing AX achievements are already being realized in industrial settings, such as KG DONGBUSTEEL’s Agent AI in steel manufacturing and CONEX’s quality improvements in casting and machining processes. Additionally, in collaboration with 42dot, SKT is expanding its AI models into the mobility and on-device domains, while working with Liner to build high-quality structured training data and enhance search services.

In the B2C sector, the company plans to leverage KTCorporation’s flagship service touchpoints—such as A.dot, A.dot Biz, and T Map—to develop lifestyle-oriented agents. The vision is to enable the public to naturally experience domestically developed AI in their daily lives through tasks such as information search and schedule coordination.

Kim Tae-yoon, Head of Foundation Models at SKT, stated, “By pooling the capabilities of our elite team—from developing proprietary models to driving the transition to industrial AI—we will contribute to the expansion of the K-AI ecosystem.”