SK Telecom Partners with U.S. AI Startup Perplexity to Advance Conversational Search

Seoul, South Korea—SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) and U.S. AI startup Perplexity announced a partnership to develop conversational AI search technology on Wednesday. 

The collaboration aims to shift from traditional keyword searches to AI-driven conversational queries.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, visiting South Korea for the first time, outlined plans for mutual investment, joint marketing, and technical support to enhance SK Telecom's A. service and a global AI agent service.

SK Telecom invested $10 million in Perplexity in June. 

Perplexity will reciprocate by investing in SKT's Silicon Valley-based subsidiary, Global AI Platform Corporation (GAP Co.). The amount of Perplexity's investment was not disclosed.

The partnership will focus on developing a Personal AI Agent (PAA) for the global market, with Perplexity as the search partner. A beta version is slated for release in the U.S. market by year-end. 

The PAA aims to be a personal assistant, understanding user intentions and connecting them to the most appropriate services.

SKT's A. service, with over 5 million subscribers as of late August, will incorporate Perplexity's AI search engine. 

This integration follows a major overhaul of A. on August 26, which included multiple language models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and A.X.

The companies will jointly develop a Korean-optimized AI search engine. SKT will provide Korean language data and cultural content, while Perplexity will handle search engine fine-tuning.

SKT customers will receive complimentary one-year access to Perplexity Pro, which is typically priced at around KRW 290,000 (US$216) annually. 

The promotion will be announced to customers via MMS.

Perplexity Pro offers high response accuracy, advanced search capabilities, and image upload functionality. 

It also provides precise sources for search results, reducing the occurrence of AI hallucinations.

Market research firm Market and Market projects the conversational AI market to grow from $13.2 billion in 2024 to $49.9 billion by 2030, with an average annual growth rate of 24.9%.

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