KT expands AI-based work methods companywide with 'AX Design Clinic'

KT Corp is rolling out a hands-on AI transformation program to spread AI-based work methods across the entire company.

KT Corp said Wednesday it is running the AX Design Clinic, a support program that turns work ideas from employees on the ground into concrete AI transformation, or AX, results.

The AX Design Clinic is a hands-on program designed to build optimal AX execution plans. Its core feature has in-house AX experts working alongside employees to analyze work processes and pain points, then redesign them from an AX perspective. The program supports the entire process, from analyzing tasks and designing workflows to selecting an implementation method and building and verifying AI agents and automation solutions.

KT Corp said that while companies' use of AI has been expanding recently, business units often struggle to determine which tasks should be handled by AI. Through the AX Design Clinic, KT Corp plans to first analyze the nature of the work and data involved, then apply the most suitable approach, such as AI agents or automation.

KT Corp said it is particularly focusing not on increasing the number of AI agents but on identifying cases with proven results and establishing them as standard, reusable workflow models.

According to KT Corp, 15 internal organizations have so far submitted a total of 122 work innovation ideas to the AX Design Clinic. Demand centered on automating data collection and processing, with 71 submissions, followed by improving approval and review processes with 33, and generating reports and dashboards with 12. The results reflect employees' preference for reducing repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows over building complex AI features.

KT Corp said the AX Design Clinic is in fact driving a range of AX projects, including consultation booking in the legal department, financial data analysis and reporting, and purchasing and contract work.

In the Supply Chain Management Office, for example, the company is developing an integrated purchasing and contract process guidance agent. The agent walks users through regulations, procedures and operating standards for purchasing and software service contracts. The legal department is automating its booking process through a lifestyle legal consultation scheduling agent. In the finance division, an agent lets users query and compare key management information in natural language based on investor relations materials.

KT Corp plans to expand cases verified through the AX Design Clinic to other units and group companies going forward.

"The AX Design Clinic is not about creating a large number of AI agents, but a program that designs the agents and work methods that business units actually need and verifies their effectiveness," said Jeong Chan-ho, head of KT Corp's IT Strategy Office. "We will connect ideas from the field to practical work and build up verified cases as the organization's AX assets."