SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence unit is introducing a voluntary retirement program for employees just weeks after the launch

South Korean telecom giant SK Telecom is making big changes to its new artificial intelligence division, AI CIC, just weeks after its launch. A voluntary retirement program is being offered to employees working at the unit as part of a broader effort to bring together the company’s various AI-related divisions, SK Telecom confirmed to TechCrunch.

“In late September, SK Telecom announced the launch of its AI CIC (company within the company) unit and confirmed that a detailed organizational restructuring would be determined by the end of October,” an SK Telecom spokesperson told TechCrunch. “This special retirement program is purely a supportive measure and is not intended as a restructuring or downsizing measure.”

The spokesman said that the voluntary retirement program will not involve forced layoffs and aims to support employees whose roles, organizations or work locations may change. Employees who choose to remain with the company may be reassigned to regional offices.

Details of the voluntary retirement program have been sent to employees across all experience levels, including junior and senior employees, industry sources told TechCrunch. The AI ​​unit has about 1,000 employees, according to media reports.

The AI ​​CIC aims to bring together SK Telecom’s various AI-related units under a central organization, according to the spokesperson. “This integration involves simplifying overlapping roles and functions, which may inevitably lead to changes such as role transitions, organizational realignments, or transfers,” they said.

The new division will oversee the development of SK Telecom’s personal AI agent, A. (pronounced “A-dot”), as well as its AI data center operations, enterprise AI business, and global AI partnerships and investments.

Severance packages are said to be expected to vary based on employees’ tenure and position, but a spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company has not set such internal targets. “Because participation is completely voluntary, it is difficult to predict at this stage [how many employees] “This may impact the organization as a whole,” the spokesman said.

The restructuring comes as SK Telecom seeks to streamline operations and enhance efficiency, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. The company plans its AI division to record annual revenues of 5 trillion yen (about $3.5 billion) by 2030, and expects its AI-driven B2C and B2B services as well as related infrastructure to drive this growth.

The telecom giant recently unveiled its AI infrastructure efforts, offering Nvidia Blackwell GPUs as a service, and earlier this month partnered with OpenAI to develop AI data centers in southwest Korea as part of the “Stargate Korea” initiative.