SK Broadband to Train All Employees in AI, Target 400 "AI Performers"

*Editor's Note: 'AI PRISM' (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an AI-based customized news recommendation and summarization service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It provides six curated news items tailored to each reader type.

1. SKB Declares "First Year of AX Innovation," Aims to Turn All Employees into AI Experts

- Key Summary: SK Broadband will fully operate its "AI Agent Lab" for all employees from March to October this year. The company plans to more than double the share of employees with intermediate-level or higher AI capabilities (AI performers) from the current 9% to 20%, or 400 employees, by the end of this year, while requiring all staff to complete the entry-level "AI Learner" course. The training will utilize the latest AI tools such as Gemini and Dify, and at least 400 customized in-house AI work tools are expected to be created. With AI leadership training becoming mandatory by rank and AI certification systems being strengthened, AI capabilities have emerged as a key variable determining growth paths within the organization.

2. From U.S. Stock Recommendations to Sign-Up in Just 10 Minutes — AI Has the Edge in Small-Scale Investment Advice

- Key Summary: KB Kookmin Bank's "AI Portfolio" took less than 10 minutes from MyData integration to actual product enrollment, offering a portfolio with a high proportion of U.S. IT stocks broken down into 11 asset categories. As of the end of March, bank robo-advisor customers numbered 177,659, up 5.5% from a year earlier, with assets under management rising 5.6% to 642.5 billion won. However, in a Hana Institute of Finance survey, only 18% of wealthy respondents said they trust AI financial transactions, and just 6% said they want dedicated AI management. While AI shows competitiveness in small-scale non-face-to-face investment, the higher the asset size, the stronger the preference for human experts — indicating that the roles of AI and human experts are diverging according to asset scale.

3. "China's Secret Is a Business Environment Unafraid of Failure — Korea Falls Behind Chasing Short-Term Profits"

- Key Summary: Yin Zhichang, Asia-Pacific head of Xreal, the world's No. 1 AR glasses company, cited "the Korean conglomerate culture that prioritizes short-term profitability" as the reason Korea has ceded leadership in the AR market to China. According to him, China has come to dominate the global AR market after its government built complete supply chains and industrial infrastructure in areas such as Shenzhen, while startups advanced their technologies without fearing failure. Xreal's global sales last year reached 50 million units, while the Korean market remains at around 10,000 units, highlighting a stark gap. The implication drawn from this case is that an organizational culture tolerant of failure and long-term investment in innovation are the core of technological competitiveness.

4. Hyundai Motor (005380) Group to Recruit Future Technology Talent in Silicon Valley in September

- Key Summary: Hyundai Motor Group will hold the "HMG Tech Talent Forum" for the first time in Silicon Valley on September 17-18, launching the group's first integrated recruitment program, "HMG Global Tech Talent Recruitment." Nine affiliates including Hyundai Motor, Kia (000270), Boston Dynamics, and Motional will participate, recruiting talent in seven fields: AI, robotics, autonomous driving, smart manufacturing, SW/IT, batteries, and hydrogen energy. Eligible applicants are graduates or prospective graduates who have majored in science or engineering at overseas universities, with applications accepted until the 22nd of next month. The move is seen as opening practical opportunities for science and engineering professionals and job seekers looking to expand into cutting-edge technology fields globally.

5. S-Grade Contribution Lists to Be Made Public — Ending "Opaque Evaluations" for Civil Servants

- Key Summary: The Ministry of Personnel Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety have pre-announced a revised bill on civil servant performance evaluation regulations, requiring mandatory notification of performance evaluation results to evaluatees and public disclosure of the top S-grade performance bonus list to all employees. From the second half of this year, the digital performance management system "e-Saram" will be introduced, enabling continuous recording and management of work processes and real-time feedback between evaluators and evaluatees. In addition to individual work, contributions to joint tasks and inter-departmental collaboration will be included as evaluation factors, reflecting substantive contributions officially. If transparent performance evaluation practices spread to the private sector, the ability to systematically record and make work contributions visible is expected to emerge as a new competitive condition for office workers in general.

6. Non-Face-to-Face Transactions Plus AX — Bank Employees Down 1,100 in One Year

- Key Summary: As of the end of last year, the number of employees at commercial banks stood at 61,156, down 1,123 from the previous year, and down 6,011 from the end of 2019 (67,167) before COVID-19, a decline of about 9%. KB Kookmin Bank's branches shrank by 29 in one year to 771, and Shinhan Bank's by 43 to 650. However, AI errors remain evident in complex financial consultations, as Kakao Bank (323410) AI suggested a 620 million won loan amount for an apartment in the Seoul metropolitan area with a market value exceeding 2.5 billion won. The industry warns that as AX accelerates, replacement in teller, screening, and back-office roles will gather further speed, and notes that it is now time to completely redesign organizational structures and employee retraining.