KT Expands Sori Finding, Rolls Out AI Hearing Screening Across Korean Hospitals

KT is expanding its flagship social contribution program, KT Sori Finding, to broaden support for children with hearing loss and other auditory disabilities. The company announced a practical workshop in Seoul with Severance Hospital and three other national university hospitals, along with the Community Chest of Korea, to advance the program’s nationwide reach.

About 20 hospital and welfare officials attended the workshop at KT’s Gwanghwamun East building. Participants shared 2026 plans for the Dream Classroom rehabilitation and education spaces, discussed joint programs and nationwide collaborative events, and exchanged best practices such as the Dream Catcher career talks for hearing-impaired youths and their parents, aimed at raising program quality.

The group also reviewed the AI-based hearing assessment kiosk that KT piloted last year. Developed with ODISO, the domestic firm identified as the country’s first internationally certified provider of hearing-measurement calibration, the kiosk enables people to check their hearing status in everyday settings such as malls, libraries and public offices. KT and ODISO are collaborating to improve the interpretive results and subsequent counseling using KT’s AI model.

Spring 2026 recruitment for the Dream Classroom began, with Severance Hospital, Jeju National University Hospital, Chonnam National University Hospital, and Kyungpook National University Hospital offering language, music and art-based rehabilitation and education programs. Some courses will be available online, expanding access beyond geographic boundaries. The programs are open to children wearing cochlear implants, with details and schedules posted by each hospital’s Dream Classroom office.

KT notes that its Sori Finding program has supported more than 37,000 people since 2003, providing cochlear implant surgery funding and rehabilitation services. The Dream Classroom was first established at Severance Hospital in 2012, and has since expanded to Jeju, Chonnam and Kyungpook national universities, with one international location in Cambodia. The programs aim to improve speech, language, social skills and overall adaptation for hearing-impaired children.

Oh Tae-seong, KT’s senior manager in charge of ESG management, said the nationwide expansion means hospitals can pool experience and raise operating standards. He added that advancing AI-enabled Sori Finding and Dream Classroom operations will help more children hear a broader range of sounds and plan their lives with greater confidence.

For U.S. readers, the KT effort illustrates a public-private model that blends AI-enabled screening with accredited medical centers and community-based rehabilitation. If scalable, similar approaches could influence early hearing-loss screening, access to rehabilitation services, and inclusive education initiatives in the United States, as well as considerations around cross-border partnerships, privacy and data governance, and the readiness of health systems to adopt AI-driven diagnostics outside traditional clinics. It also highlights the role of philanthropic and corporate programs in expanding medical and educational support for children with disabilities.