▲ SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang
SK Telecom announced today (June 16) that it is embarking on an unconventional organizational experiment by assigning employee IDs to AI agents and managing them similarly to human staff.
SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang unveiled "AX Innovation 2.0" at the "2026 New Icheon Forum," held last week at the SKMS Research Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.
While AX Innovation 1.0 focused on improving operational efficiency in the field, this new initiative aims to achieve productivity gains and business model innovation by fundamentally redesigning how employees work.
First, SK Telecom has defined AI not merely as a tool for administrative support, but as a new subject of work.
AI agents will be assigned employee IDs, departments, job functions, and access permissions, and will be managed in a manner similar to humans from onboarding to offboarding.
The company also plans to establish a governance framework, including regulations for data and security access rights for these AI agents.
It is expected that as AI agents collaborate with staff within the work system, repetitive tasks will be reduced, allowing employees to focus on more creative and strategic work.
The company will also gradually expand the "AX Sandbox" program, which redesigns existing work processes with an AI-centric approach.
AX Sandbox is an internal experimental program that redesigns conventional tasks from scratch based on AI.
It operates horizontally, regardless of job titles or departments.
SK Telecom explained that after a three-month pilot run in some organizations within its AI CIC, it confirmed the potential for a "multi-role" work style—where one person performs multiple roles such as planning, development, and design alongside several AI agents—as well as benefits such as reduced planning time and faster decision-making.
The company is also working to improve the environment for AI utilization.
While upgrading its security system, the company plans to integrate existing internal AI development platforms such as A.biz, Polaris, and Playground, and link them with major internal systems to enhance AI usability.
Furthermore, the company will select "AX Catalysts" to promote AI transformation across all business areas and assist employees, while the existing system for sharing AI transformation ideas will be accumulated and expanded as an "AX Library."
(Photo: Courtesy of SK Telecom, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.