KT rolls out AI store assistant to break language barriers for int'l customers

An international customer, left, receives a consultation through telecom carrier KT Corp.’s multilingual artificial intelligence assistant device at a retail store in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. Courtesy of KT

For foreign nationals and travelers in Korea, setting up a mobile phone plan has long been a notorious bureaucratic gauntlet, complicated by rigid registration laws and a steep language barrier. KT Corp., one of the country’s dominant telecommunications carriers, is betting that artificial intelligence (AI) can solve this persistent friction point at the retail counter.

The company said Monday that it is introducing an "AI Multilingual Counselor" across its retail stores, a first for the Korean telecom industry. Developed to assist foreign customers in their native tongues, the digital assistant handles inquiries regarding complex pricing structures, data plans, contract terms and corporate membership perks. The system launches with support for more than 20 languages, including English, Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese.

The initiative is part of a broader push by Korean conglomerates to apply AI in customer-facing operations, a trend the industry terms "AI transformation." Rather than replacing human capital, the digital counselors are designed to act as on-floor co-pilots. At high-traffic urban hubs, they mitigate the burden on bilingual staff. At smaller, single-employee kiosks, they function as a crucial translation safety net to ensure contract terms are accurately understood.

To build the platform, KT partnered with Cplat AI, a local conversational-technology startup. The carrier has been quietly pilot-testing the AI assistants since March at three specialized branches in the Seoul metropolitan area — including Hyehwa and Ansan, neighborhoods dense with foreign students and migrant workers. Following successful trials, KT plans a rolling deployment to additional brick-and-mortar storefronts through the end of June.

The company expects the system to yield data dividends as well.

KT intends to analyze the linguistic data, tracking which products and service complaints trend among specific nationalities to refine its localized marketing and product design. Future plans include expanding the software into a mobile app so users can monitor their data usage and billing outside the store in their native languages.

"The AI Multilingual Counselor improves convenience for foreign customers while optimizing on-site operational efficiency," said Kwon Hee-geun, a senior vice president at KT’s customer business division, adding that the carrier plans to eventually adapt the underlying personalized technology for its domestic clientele.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.