South Korean telco large SK Telecom is making massive adjustments at its new AI division, AI CIC, simply weeks after it was launched. Workers employed by the unit are being provided a voluntary retirement program as a part of a broader effort to deliver collectively the corporate’s varied AI-related divisions, SK Telecom confirmed to TechCrunch.

“In late September, SK Telecom introduced the launch of the AI CIC (Firm-in-Firm) unit and confirmed that detailed organizational restructuring can be specified by the tip of October,” a spokesperson at SK Telecom informed TechCrunch. “This particular retirement program is totally a supportive measure and isn’t supposed as a restructuring or downsizing measure.”

The voluntary retirement program won’t contain compelled layoffs, and is supposed to assist staff whose roles, organizations or work areas could change, the spokesperson mentioned. Staff who choose to stick with the corporate could also be reassigned to regional places of work.

Particulars of the voluntary retirement program have been communicated to employees throughout all expertise ranges, together with each junior and senior staff, trade sources informed TechCrunch. The AI unit has about 1,000 staff, per media studies.

AI CIC is supposed to deliver collectively SK Telecom’s varied AI-related models below a centralized group, per the spokesperson. “This integration includes streamlining overlapping roles and capabilities, which can inevitably result in adjustments similar to function transitions, organizational realignments, or relocations,” they mentioned.

The brand new division will oversee the event of SK Telecom’s private AI agent, A. (pronounced “A-dot”), its AI knowledge middle operations, enterprise AI enterprise, in addition to international AI partnerships and investments.

Severance packages are reportedly anticipated to range primarily based on staff’ tenure and place, however the spokesperson informed TechCrunch the corporate has set no such inner targets. “As participation is totally voluntary, it’s troublesome at this stage to foretell [how many employees] it could impression on the group as an entire,” the spokesperson mentioned.

The restructuring comes as SK Telecom seeks to streamline operations and enhance effectivity, with a selected deal with AI. The corporate plans for the AI division to document annual income of ₩5 trillion (round $3.5 billion) by 2030, and expects AI-driven B2C and B2B providers in addition to associated infrastructure to drive that progress.

The telecom large just lately unveiled an AI infrastructure effort, providing Nvidia Blackwell GPUs-as-a-service, and earlier this month partnered with OpenAI to develop AI knowledge facilities in southwestern Korea as a part of the ‘Stargate Korea’ initiative.