From left: Hyoungcheol Kim, AI Accessibility Team member; Choonsoo Kim, AI Accessibility Team Leader; Eunsang Cho, Seongchan Lee, YATAV CEO; Yongjin Lee, Multimodal Application Team member; Jaegyun Lim, Multimodal Application Team Leader; and Wooyoul Yoon, ESG Planning Team member.
SK Telecom (SKT) won four GLOMO Awards at MWC25, marking its sixth consecutive year of recognition. Following the story of another winner Petasus Cloud, SKT Newsroom introduces Meta Forest, an AI metaverse platform for psychological counseling, which earned SKT and YATAV the “Best Mobile Innovation for Enhancing the Lives of Children and Young People” award.
We interviewed the AI Accessibility Team, the Multimodal Application Team, and YATAV CEO’s Eunsang Cho and Seongchan Lee – key figures behind the win – to discuss the development of Meta Forest, their thoughts on the award, and future plans.
Meta Forest enables therapy sessions on the metaverse
Meta Forest provides a more comfortable and immersive mental health care environment for both therapists and clients through an AI-powered metaverse counseling platform. It is specifically designed for children and adolescents, allowing them to receive psychological counseling more easily.
Meta Forest recognizes users’ facial expressions in real-time via a webcam and maps them onto avatars, allowing for natural communication even in remote counseling sessions. This feature enables clients to express emotions more easily in the virtual space while facilitating deeper conversations with therapists. Meanwhile, therapists can analyze non-verbal cues through avatars, leading to more precise and effective counseling. Ultimately, this increases accessibility to mental health services, helping children and adolescents facing psychological challenges receive counseling more easily and conveniently.
One of the most critical aspects of metaverse-based counseling is the subtleness of non-verbal expressions. Therapists closely observe subtle facial movements such as eyebrow movement, blinking, and mouth shape to analyze clients’ psychological states with greater precision. Initially, Meta Forest could only detect seven facial expressions, but thanks to SKT’s AI technology, it can now recognize over 50 expressions.
The core technology enabling this advancement is SKT’s Face Expression Tracking system. This technology utilizes 478 facial landmarks for precise expression detection. And using the Blendshape technique, micro-facial movements are converted into numerical data and combined to create 3D animated facial expressions. Notably, specific training for the landmarks around the eyes is conducted separately to accurately track blinking and eye movements.
Meta Forest also provides documentation and summarization after counseling sessions, available with mutual consent. The platform is currently used by over 300 institutions, including the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and Jeollanam-do Office of Education. It also operates emotional support programs for underserved populations, further expanding access to mental health care.
With its cutting-edge technology, Meta Forest is creating meaningful social impact by building a highly effective mental health care environment for young people.
SKT & YATAV, unlocking new possibilities in psychological counseling with AI
Trophy received by Meta Forest for the 2025 GLOMO Award “Best Mobile Innovation for Enhancing the Lives of Children and Young People” category
Meta Forest received the GLOMO Award in the “Best Mobile Innovation for Enhancing the Lives of Children and Young People” category, which recognizes companies that have developed groundbreaking mobile apps or technologies in the rapidly evolving mobile industry.
The team in a meeting discussing Meta Forest services.
Q. How do you feel about winning the GLOMO Award for Best Mobile Innovation?
A. Choonsoo Kim, Team Leader, SKT ESG Promotion Department, AI Accessibility Team: I’m proud to see SKT’s AI technology creating social value and making a positive impact on users’ lives. We will continue to develop AI-powered services that create social value in the future as well.
A. Jaegyun Lim, Team Leader, SKT AI Tech Product Division, Multimodal Application Team: It’s given me a deep appreciation for the value of our technology to see the algorithms developed by our team come to life in real-world services and make a direct impact on people’s lives.
A. Seongchan Lee, CEO of YATAV: SKT’s Multimodal AI technology played a crucial role in creating the wow factor that led to this award.
Q. How did SKT and YATAV start working together?
A. Wooyeol Yoon, SKT ESG Promotion Department, ESG Planning Team: YATAV’s vision of a metaverse platform that makes psychological counseling more accessible for young people was refreshing, and the CEO’s genuine passion for the project resonated deeply with us. As we explored ways to leverage SKT’s AI and network capabilities, we realized that facial expressions play a critical role in counseling but were difficult to utilize effectively. This led us to incorporate SKT’s Face Expression Tracking AI developed by the Multimodal Application Team into Meta Forest.
YATAV CEO’s Eunsang Cho (left) and Seongchan Lee (right).
Q. Meta Forest was showcased at MWC25’s 4YFN booth. Were there any memorable reactions from visitors?
A. Seongchan Lee, CEO of YATAV: A major European multinational showed deep interest in metaverse counseling. They requested multiple pre-meetings, proposed a collaboration, and even co-hosted our booth for four days. We sense their enthusiasm as they are exploring ways to introduce Meta Forest as a new counseling channel in Europe and discussing potential partnerships with their network of therapists and marketing teams.
Q. What was the reaction like at SKT after the win?
A. Hyeongcheol Kim, SKT ESG Promotion Department, AI Accessibility Team: There is a strong sense of appreciation for the fact that our AI technology is breaking down barriers to mental health services, and people are looking forward to the continued enhancement of Meta Forest and the expansion of related services through our AI expertise.
A. Yongjin Lee, SKT AI Tech Product Division, Multimodal Application Team: People find it meaningful that technology developed in-house is making a positive impact through real world services. There is also great anticipation for another AI-powered image recognition technology SKT is developing to be widely used in Aster (A*) in the future.
Q. What are the future plans for Meta Forest?
A. Eunsang Cho, CEO of YATAV: Remote counseling is the future. Meta Forest aims to support therapists in conducting more efficient counseling sessions through collaboration with AI. Additionally, we plan to develop AI assistant counselors, allowing clients to receive counseling at a more affordable cost.
By integrating SKT’s AI technology, Meta Forest enhances immersion in therapy sessions and opens up new horizons in mental health care. SKT will continue to create real social value leveraging AI in the future.
