Naver, Kakao roll out AI agents as core growth slows

South Korea’s Naver and Kakao are rolling out AI agents as their core search and messaging businesses stagnate.

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said the company will add AI agents across its services, and will expand its shopping agent beyond Naver Plus Store this year.

Kakao expanded its Kakao Tools feature inside ChatGPT for Kakao to connect outside services, aiming to let users shop or book travel in a chat window.

Naver and Kakao spent 2.2217 trillion won (US$1.47 billion) and 1.2991 trillion won (US$861.56 million) on R&D last year, while an AI industry insider warned that weak agent performance could cause booking or payment errors.

🔗 Source: Chosun Daily

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Google’s map access is pushing AI spending to a record

The AI agent push follows a new rival move. The Korean government recently let Google use high-precision local map data overseas for the first time, with safeguards 1.
The change could weaken Naver Map’s lead. Naver Map had 28.8 million monthly active users in January, while Google Maps had 9.98 million 1.
Naver raised R&D spending to a record 2.22 trillion won in 2025, up about 20% year over year, to support its AI plans 2.
The build-out includes contracts for 60,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs (graphics processing units). The aim is “full-loop” agents that run tasks from search through purchase or booking 3.

AI agents are moving from add-on tools to automated platforms

The shift goes beyond Naver and Kakao. Korean IT services groups such as LG CNS and Samsung SDS have rolled out enterprise AI agent platforms 4.
These systems go past chat. LG Display reported a 10% productivity lift in early use 4.
The longer-term plan moves work toward “orchestration,” where employees oversee tasks done by AI agents 5.
The model can reshape partnerships. Third-party retailers and travel services may need integrations to reach customers, as in Kakao’s talks with Musinsa and MyRealTrip 6.