KT Corporation Partners with Microsoft for Multi-Billion Dollar Five-Year Collaboration

KT Corporation, recognized as South Korea’s second-largest wireless carrier and a frontrunner in telecommunications and ICT, has unveiled a transformative five-year partnership worth billions with Microsoft. This significant collaboration is centered on joint investments in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and information technology (IT), with KT taking the lead in AI and cloud initiatives while Microsoft focuses on infrastructure and employee development.

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, highlighted the importance of this collaboration:

“Our strategic partnership combines KT’s deep industry expertise with the robust capabilities of our technology stack, ranging from Azure AI to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Together, we aim to accelerate the AI transformation of organizations in Korea across both the private and public sectors and create new, AI-powered experiences for millions of consumers.”

As part of this partnership, KT and Microsoft plan to develop a customized version of GPT-4o and investigate adaptations of Microsoft’s Phi family of small language models to align with Korean cultural contexts and industry data. These tailor-made models will not only enhance KT’s internal operations but will also be made available to other Korean enterprises seeking to develop AI applications for local consumers.

Utilizing Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio, KT is set to design bespoke AI agents for both consumer and business applications. Additionally, the two companies will work on improving KT’s Responsible AI framework to ensure the secure deployment of AI services within Korea.

Another pivotal initiative involves the collaborative development and rollout of Secure Public Cloud services, which represent KT’s sovereign cloud solution based on Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, specifically tailored for industries regulated by Korean standards.

To strengthen this partnership, KT’s AX-specialized service firm will implement Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions for the Korean market, with aspirations for global outreach. Microsoft will lend its support to this initiative by providing professional consulting resources over the next three years.

In conclusion, KT plans to transition its existing internal IT workloads, including mission-critical applications, to Microsoft Azure, leveraging services such as Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service. Moreover, KT will provide its employees and developers with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot.

Source: Microsoft

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