AI agent demo planned for October; integrated membership in the works

Kakao X to actively develop digital assets

An exterior view of Kakao's headquarters. [Herald DB]
An exterior view of Kakao's headquarters. [Herald DB]

Kakao has unveiled a blueprint to reach 6 trillion won ($4.43 billion) in annual sales by 2030, centered on Kakao AI — the entity that will take over the company's AI business following a planned spin-off. The target includes 1 trillion won in revenue from AI services alone, with daily active users rising to 20 million.

Kim Do-young, head of Kakao Group's investment strategy division, announced the plan at an online briefing for retail shareholders Wednesday, according to Yonhap. The company aims to grow Kakao AI's sales from 2.7 trillion won last year to more than 6 trillion won by 2030.

Of that total, AI services are expected to account for about 1 trillion won. The company plans to expand AI features within KakaoTalk to drive daily active users to 20 million while increasing the time users spend on the messaging app by 50 percent from current levels.

Kakao AI will focus on integrating AI capabilities into existing platforms — including KakaoTalk, maps, advertising and commerce. The company plans to build what it calls "agentic AI" that reads user intent from conversation and service-usage context, then carries tasks through to completion.

Some of those services are expected to take shape in October. Jeon Hyun-su, Kakao's business operations leader, said the company plans to demonstrate select AI agents at a developer conference that month. The approach would let users launch and complete a range of tasks directly within KakaoTalk, without switching to separate apps.

Kakao is also developing an integrated membership program that ties together services across its ecosystem. The program would let users consolidate and redeem rewards earned across mobility, content, commerce and other services in one place. Jeon said the company is still designing and validating the business model ahead of an official launch, and that specific benefits and a release date have not yet been disclosed.

Kakao also outlined measures to address privacy concerns in its AI service design. The company plans to offer relevant features through on-device processing — handled directly on users' smartphones — and to broaden its service scope by combining its own LLM with external specialized agents.

Kakao X, which will handle non-AI businesses and investment functions after the spin-off, set its own growth target: 10 trillion won in sales by 2030, driven by expansion in tech-finance, content and mobility.

Key growth areas identified by Kakao X include digital assets, live entertainment, a global fandom platform, robotaxis, robotic trucks and physical AI.


kyoung@heraldcorp.com