Korea Telecom and 16 partner companies met in Seoul on Monday to lock in the launch plan for their joint artificial intelligence service, 'Modoo-ui AI' — Korean for 'AI for Everyone' — confirming a formal debut in December.
The 17-member consortium gathered for the 'Modoo-ui AI Connect Summit 2026' in the capital to review preparations for the integrated service, according to trade publication Telecompaper.
The group spans telecom giant KT, the Daum portal, fashion retailer Musinsa, real-estate platform Zigbang, BC Card, broadcaster EBS, and AI startups including Upstage, Rebellions, Saltlux, Mathpresso, DeepSearch, VESSL AI, Motif Technologies, and NC AI, plus ConnectWave, ActionPower, and Rablup.
Seventeen companies, one December deadline
The consortium is one of three operators selected by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT on August 28 for the government's nationwide 'AI for Everyone' project, alongside groups led by SK Telecom and Kakao.
Six consortia bid for the program; three were chosen after document and presentation reviews, per The Asia Business Daily.
Under the plan, each operator receives 512 Nvidia B200 graphics processors this year, and starting in 2027 the government will fund the cost of serving the entire country.
Seoul plans an additional 250 billion won — about $184 million — for 2027, including support for around 2,000 GPUs, according to The Korea Times and ETNews.
Free AI for 52 million people
The ambition is sweeping: free AI assistants and public-service agents for all 52 million South Koreans, with services staying free through 2028 under government funding. Developers must use domestically developed AI models for at least 50 percent of what they offer — a deliberate sovereign-AI push to cut dependence on foreign models.
The three consortia are targeting 5 million monthly active users each by year-end. A closed beta of the AI services is expected later this month, with the full service rolling out in December.
Three different bets on how people will use it
Each operator is taking a different distribution route. KT is embedding AI directly inside the apps people already use — searching the Daum portal, shopping on Musinsa, browsing Zigbang listings, paying with BC Card — so users meet the assistant inside everyday tasks instead of downloading yet another app.
Its telecom and media infrastructure, including IPTV, will fold information searches and public services into a single conversational flow.
SK Telecom is routing the national AI through its A. assistant app, which already has about 10 million monthly users, backed by its 22.5 million mobile subscriber lines.
Kakao is distributing through KakaoTalk, the messaging app used by more than 50 million Koreans, powered by its Kanana model and LG AI Research's EXAONE.
Between them, the three groups are staging the most detailed real-world experiment yet in mass AI adoption — and the answer it produces may decide whether the hard part of AI was ever the models, or simply meeting people where they already are.
By Hamza Faisal
By Hamza Faisal
