Kakao is forging a strategic partnership with Coupang Eats as the first step in expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) agent ecosystem. The collaboration will enable KakaoTalk users to handle everything from food menu recommendations to ordering and payment directly within a chat window, without switching to a separate app.
Chung Shin-a, CEO of Kakao, officially announced the move during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call on the 6th. “The first vertical service to be integrated with Kakao’s agent AI is food delivery,” she said. “We are entering into a partnership with Coupang Eats.”
The core of this collaboration lies in the on-device AI model developed by Kakao. The model analyzes conversation context in real-time within KakaoTalk chatrooms to autonomously detect a user’s intent to order food delivery. It then suggests optimal menu choices based on accumulated personal preference data and seamlessly processes the entire sequence—including final payment—within the chat interface.
“We are currently engaged in detailed discussions across multiple fronts to ensure the agent AI experience within KakaoTalk flows smoothly into actual transactions,” Chung said. “We plan to launch the actual service in the near future.”
The announcement carries significance beyond a mere feature addition. “It may appear as simply adding a function to order food within Talk,” Chung noted, “but it is profoundly meaningful as the first step in creating a new user habit where AI translates intent into real action and handles repetitive daily tasks.”
Kakao intends to use the Coupang Eats integration as a launchpad to significantly broaden the scope of its AI agent. Beyond food delivery, the company envisions expanding collaborations with external partners across high-frequency daily services such as commerce, reservations, travel, and payments. The ultimate goal is to build a “vertical AI infrastructure” where all consumer activities can be resolved within KakaoTalk.
The technical foundation for this vision was also unveiled. Kakao is actively expanding “PlayMCP,” an open platform based on its proprietary Model Context Protocol (MCP). The PlayMCP ecosystem currently hosts over 3,400 MCP tools, with daily call volumes exceeding 100,000. The platform is expected to serve as the central hub connecting various external services with the KakaoTalk AI agent.
On competitiveness in the agent AI era, Chung assessed that “beyond developing superior models, the ability to accurately understand user context and intent, and to connect that to real action and transactions, is critical.” She added, “With KakaoTalk—a touchpoint used daily by virtually the entire population of South Korea—and our differentiated technology and service ecosystem, Kakao will accelerate the era where everyone can leverage their own AI agent.”