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
Originally written by: Aiko Gao Ishida
Source: Tech in Asia
Published on: 26 March 2026
Link to original article: Naver, Kakao roll out AI agents as core growth slows
