GS retail and KT co-develop digital logistics business models using AI and big data

SEOUL -- For the digital transformation of its logistics business, GS Retail, the operator of South Korea's leading retail franchise, has partnered with a domestic telecom company to use artificial intelligence and big data that can optimize delivery routes, enhance the efficiency of delivery drivers and shorten the time taken to sort parcels at logistics centers.

Through cooperation with GS Retail, KT will provide an AI-based platform that will connect some 1.7 million delivery trucks to a control tower that manages schedules, delivery routes and other information such as an individual truck's height, length and weight. Drivers will be provided with optimal delivery routes in real-time.

"Through synergy created by our cooperation, we will produce a new innovative business model and continue the digital innovation of other industries," KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo was quoted as saying.

KT will receive location information about GS Retail's convenience stores, logistics centers and delivery trucks. KT's logistics optimization platform has been demonstrated in two logistics centers in Goyang Northwest of Seoul and the southern resort island of Jeju.

KT's platform will monitor and collect data related to more than seven million delivery runs made by GS Retail trucks so that it can be used in creating business models for unmanned convenient stores and non-face-to-face delivery. GS Retail, which has a network of convenience stores, beauty product franchise stores and an integrated logistics system, will cooperate with KT to develop a future green logistics system using electric vehicles.

GS Retail has partnered with GS Caltex, a major refiner, to demonstrate a last-mile-hub logistics center that provides delivery services using drones and robots at a gas station. The retail giant would use gas stations as mini logistics centers offering EV charging services and cultural activities.