Home > Business > Tech

KakaoTalk to double down on AI with ChatGPT, in-house chatbots

Published: 28 Oct. 2025, 17:20 Updated: 28 Oct. 2025, 19:53

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

Kakao's AI agent platform performance leader Yoo Yong-ha announces ChatGPT's integration with KakaoTalk on Oct. 28 at the company's headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [KAKAO

KakaoTalk will introduce a ChatGPT-powered chatbot along with a model of its own designed to analyze user conversations and suggest relevant products in real time.

The company will integrate its Kanana AI into KakaoTalk in the near future. Currently at an invite-only beta stage for select iOS users, the Kanana mini language model will reside in your KakaoTalk app and be able to read your messages, all without having to send data to the server.

Once the user agrees to the terms and conditions and downloads the model, Kanana will actively read all the conversations you have within KakaoTalk and act as an AI chatbot that “talks to you before you talk to it.”

As an example, Kakao showed a case of two users talking about travelling to Portugal. Once enough data about the upcoming trip was accumulated from the conversation data, the chatbot sent a notification to the user saying it had already searched and summarized travel-related information about Portugal, including data about currency exchange and whether you have to tip in the country.

A promotional image for Kanana, Kakao's own AI chatbot [KAKAO]

The service will only be active when the user voluntarily agrees to the terms and conditions and downloads Kakana, but the AI model will not need additional consent from the other parties in the conversation, according to Kakao.

The 600MB app uses around the same amount of memory, occupying less than 10 percent of the total RAM in modern smartphones — relatively light for an on-device language model but still a significant add-on to a messenger app that is constantly running. The chatbot currently only works on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer due to performance constraints.

But before the AI that reads your conversation is rolled out for all users, KakaoTalk will be getting ChatGPT integration on Tuesday.

ChatGPT for Kakao — embedded within the messenger — launched on Tuesday with updates released sequentially, while Kanana's beta stage will be expanding to Android in the first quarter of 2026, before an official release down the line.

Following the update, there will be a new ChatGPT tab visible, where users can directly access the OpenAI service, including image generation and file uploads.

KakaoTalk's promotional image for ChatGPT in Kakao [KAKAO]

ChatGPT is extensively used by Koreans, with around 2 million monthly active users according to market tracker WiseApp. But Kakao says that the integration in KakaoTalk will bring seamless integration with Kakao Map, KakaoTalk reservation, KakaoTalk Gift and Melon, allowing users to complete all of their daily tasks within the ecosystem.

For example, users trying to plan a trip overseas can invite ChatGPT to help formulate a travel plan, provide answers to queries and perhaps most importantly, recommend products from KakaoTalk Shopping.

“You’ll be able to get the things you want without having to go through a convoluted menu navigation and moving through different apps," Yong-ha, Kakao’s AI agent platform performance leader, said on Tuesday, at the Kakao headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi.

While the service is free, the number of queries will be limited to users without a ChatGPT subscription. Users with a ChatGPT subscription will be able to link it to KakaoTalk, and the messenger will also offer discounts for ChatGPT subscriptions.

Kakao also said that ChatGPT will not train its models with data and chats created in KakaoTalk, and other services, including non-Kakao services, will also be included in the integration in the future.

The company also did not address the elephant in the room — the progress on reverting back to the directory-style friends tab on KakaoTalk — following its recent update to make the app more like a social media service, nor did it share any plans of releasing a “Lite” version of KakaoTalk that strips out the unnecessary features.

“The strength of ChatGPT for Kakao is that it is more accessible to the public,” Yoo said. “People use KakaoTalk multiple times in an hour and they will naturally be able to access the AI services.”

BY CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]