The five-year deal sees Microsoft and KT develop customised versions of AI models including OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Microsoft’s small-scale Phi family to make them suitable for use in Korean culture and industries.
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“The partnership with Microsoft presents a pivotal opportunity, not only for technological collaboration but also for expanding Korea’s AI foundation and driving transformative innovation across industries and daily life,” said Young-Shub Kim, CEO of KT Corp.
Findings from research firm Omdia suggest businesses in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly seeking AI models and services more aligned with local cultures and languages, rather than Western-centric offerings.
Microsoft and KT will work together to customise models for use in KT’s internal and consumer-facing applications, making chatbots and other solutions more suitable for Korean customers.
The deal will also see KT leverage Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure AI Studio to develop custom AI agents to improve customer experiences.
KT also plans to develop custom AI agents for use cases beyond consumers – including education, healthcare, and in-vehicle infotainment.
“Leveraging this strategic partnership, we aim to rapidly evolve into an AICT company with unparalleled competitiveness in domestic and global markets,” Kim added.
Microsoft has signed a slew of deals with vendors this year to expand the ever-growing reach of its AI services.
This latest deal will see Microsoft work with KT to launch Secure Public Cloud services — cloud solutions designed for customers in Korean and the public sector and more regulated industries
The Secure Public Cloud service would provide users with the ability to secure data and workloads to comply with local privacy and regulatory requirements.
KT will also launch an "AI transformation (AX) company" which will bring Microsoft Cloud and AI solutions to the Korean market. There are also plans to expand the new company to broader Asia Pacific markets.
Finally, the deal will see KT migrate its existing IT workloads to Microsoft Azure, with the pair also set to create a new data platform and AI services powered by Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service. The platform is designed to enhance KT’s IT infrastructure while also providing access to AI production services like 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot to enable staff to augment their workloads.
“Our strategic partnership brings together KT’s industry expertise with the power of our entire tech stack, from Azure AI to Microsoft 365 Copilot,” said Satya Nadella, chair and CEO of Microsoft.
“Together, we will help accelerate the AI transformation of Korean organisations across the private and public sector and build new AI-powered experiences for millions of consumers.”
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