SK Square Deploys AI Agents in Investment Operations

[Financial News] SK Square is accelerating its transformation into an “AI-native” investment company by expanding AI transformation (AX) across its investment operations and portfolio companies. It has deployed more than 90 AI agents developed directly by employees while automating repetitive internal tasks with AI, achieving cost savings as well.
SK Square announced on the 10th that it is innovating its investment operations and the business models of its portfolio companies, led by the AI Innovation organization established this year.
AI-native refers to redesigning an organization’s work methods and decision-making structure around AI from the ground up. Rather than using AI merely as an auxiliary tool, AI agents perform routine tasks continuously while employees verify the results or focus on complex decisions.
SK Square introduced a “Sandbox” strategy that allows employees to develop and experiment freely with AI outside existing systems. The company supports employees in developing AI agents themselves using various AI models and has also opened its internal security infrastructure more flexibly.
In its investment operations, SK Square completed the development of “one AI agent per person” in line with the group’s direction. About 80 employees have independently developed more than 90 AI agents and are applying them to their work. Going forward, the company plans to enhance the agents by linking multiple systems to support key management decisions.
The goal is for AI agents to handle repetitive tasks such as market analysis, identifying investment targets and preparing reports, while employees focus on relatively more complex investment decisions. Through this approach, SK Square aims to improve both investment expertise and processing speed.
The company has also established a system for accumulating and utilizing internal knowledge through AI. SK Square built “Kiwi,” a knowledge data hub linked to a large language model (LLM). AI automatically accumulates reports and emails written by employees and manages them as shared knowledge. Based on this information, it provides not only basic work-related knowledge but also ideas for improving operations. The system focuses on converting individuals’ work knowledge into an asset for the entire organization.
AX is also expanding into business-model innovation at portfolio companies such as SK Planet, 11st and Tmap Mobility. A leading example is the “10x TF (10x Productivity Task Force),” launched in April. SK Square developed an AI-based work automation system with developers from SK Planet, 11st and Tmap Mobility and applied it in the field. The company said it took less than four months to produce the task force’s first results after its launch.
At 11st in particular, costs for the operations center organization responsible for simple, repetitive data-management tasks were reduced by approximately 50%. SK Square said this generated profit-improvement effects worth tens of billions of won. AI is currently being used for a substantial number of tasks at 11st, including verifying the consistency of search categories and reviewing product reviews.
Kim Yong-hoon, head of AI Innovation at SK Square, said, “As the next stage of development in AI chips and infrastructure, the competitiveness of application services is becoming increasingly important. We will innovate customer services at our portfolio companies through AI and create a major turning point in their business models.”
[email protected] Yoon Hong-jip Reporter