‘LG Uplus Aims to Grow Beyond Communications, Become Global AI Software Company’

LG Uplus CEO Hong Bum-shik delivers a key-note speech at MWC 2026 at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2. (Photos: LG Uplus)

LG Uplus presented a mid- and long-term vision in which the telecom service provider will become a global AI software company leading communication and AX technology solutions.

In a meeting with reporters on the sidelines of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, on March 4, LG Uplus CEO Hong Bum-shik said, “Our goal is to become an AI-oriented software company, leading communications and AX technology solutions, and we will enter the global market through technology competitiveness we‘ve secured in areas adjacent to communications and global partnerships.”

CEO Hong’s presentation takes on significance since it means institutional reform beyond a simple service expansion. In the past, telecom service providers devoted themselves to building and operating large-sized infrastructure.

It may be construed as LG Uplus’s determination to enter the global market in earnest by changing core assets based on AI technology and data into software.

To realize the vision, CEO Hong said, LG Uplus will concentrate on the AI call agent “ixi-O,” a B2C service and “Enterprise AI Full-Stack” in the B2B sector.

In order to secure technology competitiveness with an edge in the global market, the telecom service provider plans to adopt a “choice and concentration” strategy to demonstrate its capabilities in differentiation areas, such as “Secure AI, Agentic AI and Voice AI” in which it can fare well.

Judging that security, quality and safety, can lead to a success in the future AI business, LG Uplus plans to ramp up global basic competitiveness as a global leading telecom provider by expanding investments into cloud migration and AI transformation areas in a mid- to long-term perspective.

In order to grow into a global AI software company, LG Uplus plans to upgrade the core asset “ixi-O” through its AI goal of “humanizing every connection.”

Specifically, ixi-O will evolve into stages of “S·U·P·E·R”. (That stands for Secure, Useful, Personal, Emotional, and Renaissance).

Last year, ixi-O focused on a “secure and useful” service, but starting this year, it will enter the ”personal and emotional stage” for hyper-personalization.

LG Uplus tries to focus on differential “voice AI” technologies to offer AI services tailored to meet his or her needs and read his or her heart.

LG Uplus’s voice AI not only changes text into voice, but is also characterized with offering customized answers after recognizing speakers and grasping intent of the question, context and emotions.

The keynote speech LG Uplus CEO Hong delivered at the MWC stressed voice as a key interface at the physical AI era, in which robots and wearable things will take a central stage.

He emphasized that LG Uplus will spearhead related sectors based on the most amounts of voice data the telecom service provider has accumulated for several decades.

CEO Hong presented the ‘value of voice’ as a key topic for the AI and 6G communications era.

This marks the first time an LG Group executive has taken the MWC official keynote stage, with Hong being the first representative.

LG Uplus CEO Hong Bum-shik delivers a key-note speech at MWC 2026 at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain, on March 2.

Taking the podium under the theme of ‘human-centered AI,’ Hong said that voice will emerge as a key interface in an environment overflowing with various AI technologies and devices.

He said, “We spend an average of five minutes a day on voice calls, during which numerous emotional exchanges occur,” and added, “There is no better way to share meaningful moments than through a phone call.”

Hong continued, “LG Uplus has begun a journey to make voice a fundamental means of reconnecting people,” and introduced “ixi-O.”

LG Uplus plans to add a voice AI to its own AI conversation service “ixi-O” to evolve it to “ixi-O Pro.” ixi-O Pro is to be reborn as an AI agent which can suggest information suitable to customers conditions by recognizing speakers and analyzing their tones, conservation flow and sentimental conditions.

It will further evolve into a human-oriented service combining physical AI, a variety of devices and smart devices with voice via ixi-O.

As for the B2B sector, LG Uplus to accelerate efforts to make the telecom service provider an AI software company by establishing “Enterprise AI Full-Stack,” encompassing infrastructure, platform and service.