"We are expanding our AI friend 'Kanana in KakaoTalk,' launched earlier this year, into a multimodal format. The first step is Kanana, which converses via voice."
On the 13th, Kakao CEO Jung Shin-ah held the developer conference 'If Kakao 26' at the Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and stated as much. She added, "We will transition from a GUI (Graphical User Interface) where users search for and press menus to an AUI (Audio User Interface) that conveys speech and intent, providing an experience where desired tasks can be requested naturally and executed quickly."
Jeong (CEO) demonstrated an AI agent on the day. When Jeong (CEO) requested, "I'm out of bottled water, so please order what I ordered last time," the AI agent responded, "I will order two packs of a 12-bottle set of the cheapest bottled water this month," and asked, "The cheapest 'Chun-sik Bottled Water' on Tokdeal is 560 won per bottle with free delivery, totaling 13,400 won. Would you like to place the order?" The final order can also be completed simply by responding. During lunchtime, it proactively suggested, "Would you like to order the frequently ordered pho and fried wonton set from 'Chun-sik Pho' Pangyo branch to your office?" adding, "It will take about 40 minutes and costs 23,000 won including delivery fees."
Kakao is developing an AI agent that provides responses necessary for users based on accumulated conversations, user preferences, and the situational context at the time of the request. Jeong (CEO) stated, "We plan to enable Kanana to remember users and respond appropriately to the context without needing to explain everything anew each time," adding, "We are developing it so that the process from understanding intent and performing necessary confirmations to safely completing an order flows naturally with a single word."
Kakao's strength lies in the 'user touchpoints' secured by providing various services over the past 15 years. Kakao is currently offering diverse online and offline services, including conversations, shopping, and location exploration. Jeong (CEO) said, "Under the goal of connecting everything in the world, we have connected friends, colleagues, and family through KakaoTalk over the past 15 years, and connected daily life through appointments, settlements, gifts, and content."
Kakao plans to operate its AI business for the next 10 years. The goal is to build an agent that understands users' daily lives using on-device AI, proactively speaks up at necessary moments to suggest search, shopping, and reservations, and then directly executes them. Jeong (CEO) stated, "Kanana will be part of daily life, working for users at the moment when message sending, transfers, gifts, or reservations are needed," explaining that it is "a way where Kanana waits for users in a new AI dimension (layer)."
On this day, Kakao introduced its upcoming business projects and AI safety platform in sequence: △'Kanana Space,' an AI assistant usable anywhere within KakaoTalk; △'Kanvas,' which allows creating and executing one's own agent team on PC; △the AI model 'Kanana'; and △'Project Mosaic' for personalized AI experiences. If Kakao 26 will be held over two days from the 13th to the upcoming 14th.
in TECH
