"Ryan, Mark Messages as Read and Order Lunch"... KakaoTalk Evolves into an AI Assistant (Comprehensive)

Kakao unveils Kanana Space
Manage schedules and talk with Ryan by voice on KakaoTalk
Closed beta in December; launch in the first quarter of next year

"Mark all messages in the Friends folder as read and turn off notifications."

On October 13, Kim Daenyeon, Kakao's design lead, demonstrated Kanana Space, a new AI assistant from Kakao. When Kim swiped down on the KakaoTalk screen with two fingers, the familiar character Ryan responded by voice. The KakaoTalk chat window was filled with unread messages. When Kim asked the assistant to mark them all as read, they were instantly marked as read.

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

In her keynote speech, Kakao CEO Chung Shina said, "For the past 15 years, Kakao has connected people and their daily lives, as well as online and offline experiences, with the goal of connecting everything in the world. Now, we want to expand the connections Kakao has built into a new dimension." Chung added, "We will enable users to make requests more naturally at various moments in their daily lives and provide more relevant responses based on their personal preferences and the context of each request."

Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a presents new agent services and technologies at the "IF Kakao" conference, held on the 13th under the theme "Intelligence in Every Connection." Courtesy of Kakao.

CEO Chung: "We will understand personal preferences and the context of requests to respond"

Kanana Space, the AI assistant Kakao unveiled on October 13, is connected to KakaoTalk and lets users do everything from sending gifts to making reservations through voice and text, anytime and anywhere. When users swipe down on the KakaoTalk screen with two fingers, Ryan appears. They can ask Ryan to perform a range of tasks by voice or text, from sending messages and managing schedules to searching the web and changing KakaoTalk settings. Users can also chat with Ryan about everyday topics, and Kakao plans to introduce characters based on a variety of intellectual property (IP) in the future. "Ryan turned 10 this year, and voice mode has given him a voice," Kim said. "We hope the familiarity and warmth built over the past 10 years will help users feel comfortable as they begin a new experience with AI."

Kakao plans to further develop Kanana Space so that users can carry out 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 assistant will select the bottled water they ordered previously and apply any available coupons, managing the process from ordering through payment.

"If you ask during lunch, 'Order what I got last time,' it will respond, 'Would you like me to order your usual pho and cha gio set from Chunsik Pho's Pangyo branch to your office? It will take about 40 minutes and cost 23,000 won, including delivery,'" Chung said. "This reflects the direction Kakao wants to take with AI."

Chung added, "Kanana Space is where users can easily and naturally experience three things: multimodal on-device AI that listens and responds in various ways, starting with voice; AI that remembers and understands them, going beyond understanding context; and an experience that completes tasks, starting with KakaoTalk's features. It is a general-purpose AI assistant that users can call from anywhere in KakaoTalk to handle tasks for them."

Starting in December 2026, Kakao plans to select some of those who apply in advance to take part in a closed beta test (CBT) of Kanana Space. Applications open on the Kanana Space website on October 13, and the service is scheduled for an official launch in the first quarter of 2027.

Kakao unveils "Kanvas," an autonomous agent for PCs

Kakao also unveiled Kanvas, a new service that lets users create and run agents directly on their PCs, and said it plans to conduct a CBT with a small group of users as early as 2026. Users describe the kind of agent they need, and Kanvas connects the relevant tools and skills to assemble the functions needed to carry out tasks. Agents created this way perform tasks within the scope users have authorized. Rather than overseeing every step themselves, users can complete tasks by checking in at key stages, and easily delegate repetitive work and everyday to-dos. Kakao is also preparing a feature that will let users share useful agents they have created.

Chung Shina, Kakao CEO. Courtesy of Kakao.

Kakao aims to create an "integrated agentic AI interface" that connects a variety of agents to users' daily lives. In the first half of 2027, it plans to introduce a new space in KakaoTalk where users can connect a team of agents tailored to them. Kakao plans to support convenient use through a familiar interface of agents created with Kanvas, as well as agents built with other frameworks.

Noh Byungseok, who leads development of Kakao's foundation models, said, "Kakao's AI model Kanana stands out for its full-stack optimization, covering model lightening, computation and serving. It is agentic AI that combines text, images and voice to understand requests and complete tasks." He explained that the principle is to handle each request with optimal computation rather than using the largest model for every task.

Kakao has improved inference efficiency with methods including its own Korean tokenizer and quantization-aware training (QAT), and also unveiled Kanana-O, an omni model that processes text, images and voice together. Kakao developed all the encoders and decoders that make up Kanana-O in-house and plans to release it as open source for use across the domestic and global AI ecosystems.

Kakao is also working on Project Mosaic, which connects users' scattered memories and experiences into meaningful context. Song Jaeha, chief technology officer (CTO), said, "The key is to securely provide each agent only with the information it needs, within the authorized scope, based on the user's request and desired outcome, and to enable agents with different roles to understand shared context and work together."

Kakao plans to continually enhance its safety framework by establishing systematic data governance and multifaceted safety verification measures, ensuring that agents' plans and actions are completed only within the scope to which users have agreed.

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