“Barrier Free” refers to the movement to break down physical and institutional barriers to make society more inclusive for people with disabilities and other marginalized groups. SK Telecom (“SKT”), now transforming itself into a global AI business, is using its top-notch ICT and AI technologies to develop innovative barrier-free AI services with a variety of social enterprises.

1) Sullivan Services – Eyes for the visually impaired

Sullivan Plus is an AI-powered visual assistant voice guidance app launched by Tuat in 2018. SKT has been working with Tuat on Sullivan Plus since 2021, to which it has since added voice AI “NUGU” and Vision AI. The addition of voice commands and improved facial recognition have been positively received by users. In 2022, SKT launched “Codename: Sullivan Plus,” which was an engaging digital campaign that invited customers to donate photos to help train its AI. Today, Sullivan Plus has become a must-have app for the visually impaired, with more than 300,000 downloads in over 200 countries.

In response to customer demand for text recognition-related features, SKT and Tuat jointly developed an app that is specific to the business environment—Sullivan A helps users work with documents, from summarizing documents and finding words to recognizing business cards. All of Sullivan A’s features can be used conveniently through voice commands to “NUGU,” SKT’s voice AI.

Sullivan Finder, the newest app, is designed to help the visually impaired get out and about. It offers three function categories: shopping, restaurants, and walking and safety, and like Sullivan A, can be used with voice interaction. SKT’s A.X Multimodal AI in Sullivan Finder has been trained on a billion images, enabling it to better describe images. SKT plans to double the amount of training to improve Sullivan Finder’s accuracy.

2) AI Developmental Disability Care Service – The warmest AI designed to protect people with developmental disabilities

SKT’s AI Developmental Disability Care Service uses behavioral analytics technology to automatically record and analyze challenging behaviors of people with developmental disabilities, helping professionals to intervene when and where needed.

As of the first quarter of 2024, SKT Vision AI Care has been used in five care facilities for adults with developmental disabilities in Seoul, Daejeon, and Daegu, with plans for expansion to Gyeonggi-do this year. In addition, a joint project with Seoul National University is in its third year to screen infants and toddlers with autism spectrum disorders.

3) Goyohan M – A means of transport that carries the dreams of people with hearing impairment

SKT has been working with Coactus, the operator of Goyohan M since 2018, towards creating jobs for people with hearing impairment and promoting safe driving. SKT has added blinker notifications, dispatch pop-up notifications, and messaging features to its TMAP taxi app for the hearing impaired to make the service easier to use for both drivers and passengers, and has provided hearing-impaired drivers with a T-care smartwatch so that they can easily call 112 or relay their location in an emergency situation.

In September 2023, SKT launched the voice AI “NUGU” for greater convenience. With this addition of NUGU, the UI was upgraded to allow passengers to easily access travel information or listen to music on the move. Goyohan M keeps about 180 hearing-impaired drivers employed in total as of the end of 2023, and will continue to improve its services to provide ever-more reliable services to the hearing-impaired and users of the service.

Happiness AI Coding School – empowering youth with disabilities with ICT skills

As part of its efforts to improve the ICT capabilities of youth with disabilities and bridge the information gap, SKT is running Happy AI Coding School with the National Institute of Special Education, Hana Financial Group, and SW Korea. Happy AI Coding School has a sustainable, age-appropriate coding curriculum consisting of 14 modules designed for youth with intellectual, developmental, visual and hearing disabilities, and special needs. Opened in 2019, Happy AI Coding School has seen the completion of 225 courses and trained 2,929 students so far. This year, the goal is to train about 1,800 students.

SKT continually strives to improve quality of life for people with disabilities and bridge the gap between them and the rest of society through a variety of programs and AI technologies.