Kakao Selected for Ministry of Science and ICT's 'AI Agent Marketplace Development Support Project'

Establishing an Agentic AI Distribution Ecosystem

Kakao announced on August 6 that it has been selected as the executing company for the "Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agent Marketplace Development Support Project," overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT and managed by the National Information Society Agency (NIA).

This project will be carried out with a total budget of approximately 11 billion won, combining government funding and private sector contributions. Kakao, forming a consortium with Kakao Enterprise, will lead the establishment of a private-sector-driven open ecosystem by December 2027.

Kakao CI. Kakao

The AI Agent Marketplace is a platform where users can search for and utilize AI agent services and agentic AI tools in one place. The Kakao consortium plans to build an AI agent ecosystem that provides all processes—including agent registration, validation, discovery, and execution—on a single platform. The first phase is targeted to open this year, with a second phase in 2027 featuring further advancements, including the launch of the Agent Studio.

This marketplace will be designed as an open structure, not dependent on any specific cloud or AI model. It will allow integration not only with Kakao's proprietary AI model, Kanana, but also a wide range of domestic and global AI models. In addition, external APIs and MCPs can also be freely linked.

All AI tools will undergo a multistep verification process, including security reviews, sandbox testing, and hallucination control, before being published. Even during operation, a continuous re-verification system will be maintained.

Kim Saewoong, AI Synergy Performance Leader at Kakao, explained, "We are at an inflection point where the demand for and supply of AI agents are accelerating simultaneously. Leveraging Kakao's AI technology capabilities and platform operation experience, we will establish a trusted standard for the AI agent ecosystem for developers, companies, and all users, and continue to operate it as a sustainable marketplace."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.