KakaoTalk's "AI Assistant" You Can Call by Voice... Chung Shina: "Integrated AI Agent Push Begins in Earnest"

'If Kakao' Conference Held Under the Theme "Intelligence in Every Connection"
From Sending Messages to Managing Schedules with a Single Spoken Request

Kakao CEO Chung Shina delivers a keynote speech at the If Kakao conference, held on the 13th under the theme "Intelligence in Every Connection." Photo by Seo Sojeong.

Kakao has unveiled "Kanana Space," an AI assistant that lets users call it up through KakaoTalk and use AI features anytime, anywhere. The company also introduced "Kanvas," a PC service that lets users create and run their own teams of agents, saying it plans to stand out with a fully fledged agent service built around personalization.

On Oct. 13 and 14, Kakao is holding its "If Kakao" conference at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, under the theme "Intelligence in Every Connection," showcasing a range of agent services and technologies. If Kakao is a conference where the Kakao Group presents its technology vision and shares its technological achievements with the developer community.

"For the past 15 years, Kakao has connected people with everyday life and online and offline experiences under the goal of 'connecting everything in the world,'" Kakao CEO Chung Shina said. "Now, we want to take the 'connections' Kakao has built to a new 'dimension.'" Chung said, "We will make it easier for users to naturally ask for what they need at different moments in their daily lives, and provide more relevant responses based on their personal preferences and the context at the time of their request."

Unveiled by Kakao today, the AI assistant Kanana Space connects to KakaoTalk and lets users use voice and text to do things such as send gifts and make reservations anytime, anywhere. Swiping the KakaoTalk screen with two fingers brings up Ryan, a familiar character. Users can ask it to perform a range of tasks, from sending messages by voice or text to managing schedules, searching the web, and changing KakaoTalk settings. Users can also have everyday conversations with Ryan, and Kakao plans to introduce more characters based on a range of intellectual property (IP) in the future.

Kakao plans to enhance Kanana Space so users can carry out necessary tasks such as ordering, sending gifts, making reservations, and transferring money with a single spoken request. For example, if a user says, "Order bottled water," during a conversation about needing some at home, the service will select the water they ordered previously and apply any available coupons, preparing the process from ordering through payment. Kakao plans to select some of those who apply in advance to participate in a closed beta test (CBT) starting in December. Applications open today on the Kanana Space website.

Introducing "Kanvas," an autonomous agent for PC 

Kakao also unveiled Kanvas, a service that lets users create and run agents directly on a PC, and said it plans to hold a CBT for a small group of users as early as this year. When users describe the kind of agent they need, Kanvas connects the relevant tools and skills and configures the functions needed to run it. Agents created this way carry out tasks within the scope permitted by the user. Instead of having to oversee every step, users can complete tasks simply by checking in at key stages, and easily delegate recurring work or everyday to-dos. Kakao is also preparing a feature that will let users share useful agents they have created with one another.

Kakao aims to create an "integrated agentic AI interface" that connects a range of agents to users' everyday lives. In the first half of next year, it plans to create a new space in KakaoTalk where users can connect with their own teams of agents. Kakao plans to support convenient use through a familiar interface of agents created with Kanvas as well as those built with other frameworks.

Noh Byungseok, who leads development of Kakao's foundation models, said, "Kakao's AI model Kanana stands out through full-stack optimization that spans model lightweighting, computation, and serving." He described it as "agentic AI that understands text, images, and voice together through multimodality and actually completes tasks requested by users."

Kakao is also preparing "Project Mosaic," which connects users' scattered memories and experiences into meaningful contexts. Song Jaeha, chief technology officer (CTO), said, "The key is to securely provide each agent only the information it needs, within the permitted scope, based on users' requests and desired outcomes, and to enable agents with different roles to collaborate while understanding a shared context."

Kakao plans to continue enhancing its safety framework by establishing systematic data governance and multiple safeguards for safety verification, ensuring that agents' plans and actions are completed only within the scope to which users have consented.

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