SK Telecom Chief Executive Jung Jae-hun warned that companies cutting entry-level hiring because of artificial intelligence could create a long-term talent debt, leaving them without sufficient junior or senior employees five to 10 years from now. Speaking to approximately 300 undergraduate and graduate students at Seoul National University, he said AI is taking over tasks once assigned to new hires, including organizing materials and drafting documents, but companies still need experienced employees with expertise and networks. SK Telecom, which previously hired several hundred people at a time, has recruited only about a dozen in recent years and now plans to gradually widen hiring. Jung also described an AI version of the economic J-curve: productivity can deteriorate at first as employees and organizations adjust, before rising sharply after new workflows mature. At SK Telecom, a system-modification task that once took about 50 hours required more than 500 hours during early AI adoption but later fell to one hour. He also discussed workflow redesign, retraining, sovereign AI and the continuing importance of human judgment, adaptability, empathy and expertise.