SK Broadband harnesses AI agents to overhaul network quality management

SK Broadband is transforming how it manages network quality by building an environment where any employee can create and deploy AI agents in their daily work.

The company said Monday it launched an in-house development platform called Playground in February, equipping staff with network data analysis and coding support tools. The platform was jointly developed by the company's network division and its AT·DT Center.

Until now, technical barriers had made it difficult for employees to incorporate data analysis or automation into their work. To use AI on the job, staff had to navigate complex procedures — applying for server access, setting up development environments and installing software libraries.

Playground was built to remove those hurdles, the company said. What previously took more than two months to set up can now be done in five minutes, sharply lowering the barrier to entry for AI development.

The platform can be integrated with LDAS, an internal location-based data analysis system. Through that connection, employees can draw on a range of internal data — including network equipment metrics, quality indicators, traffic data and the Customer Experience Index (CEI) — to build AI agents.

SK Broadband said roughly 600 AI applications have been developed and are now running through Playground. Of those, about 30 are full AI agents capable of assessing situations and taking action autonomously, and all have been deployed in the field.

A flagship example is C-One, an AI control and diagnostic agent that uses CEI data to automatically detect anomalies in the wired network, identify root causes and prioritize inspection points. The agent can also generate reports on locations requiring attention and send them directly to the staff responsible.

SK Broadband plans to upgrade C-One into a fully autonomous recovery agent capable of handling the entire cycle — from fault detection through resolution and restoration — without human intervention.

"The way our people work is fundamentally changing as they build AI agents themselves and put them to use in the field," said Seong Jin-su, head of SK Broadband's Network Center. "We will continue to spread a culture of AI development and keep raising the bar on network quality."