Kakao (035720.KS)-led consortium has been selected as the final operator for the Ministry of Science and ICT’s universal AI service program, known as “AI for All.” The group brings together LG affiliates including LG Uplus (032640.KS) and a broad array of medical, financial, and AI specialists, with plans to launch a lifestyle-integrated AI service by year-end anchored in South Korea’s dominant messaging platform and phone-based access.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT and Kakao on the 28th, the Kakao consortium, alongside SK Telecom and KT consortia, beat out six competing bidders to secure final selection. The government chose the three consortia after document reviews and presentation evaluations that included prototype demonstrations. Specific scores and rankings were withheld at the request of participating companies.
The Kakao consortium comprises 14 companies and institutions: four LG affiliates — LG Uplus, LG AI Research, LG Electronics, and LG CNS — plus Kakao Enterprise, Seoul National University Hospital, Shinhan Bank, Lunit, Wonderful Platform, Worksphere, Javis & Villains, Day One Company, CrowdWorks, and FuriosaAI. Each will contribute specialized capabilities spanning healthcare, finance, tax, education, employment, and caregiving, as well as data and semiconductor expertise.
The service will use KakaoTalk and phone-based AI as its core entry points. The key premise is lowering barriers to adoption by letting users access AI directly through platforms the vast majority of South Koreans already use — no separate app installation or complicated sign-up required. The service architecture rests on three pillars: a general-purpose AI chatbot, public AI agents, and sector-specific AI agents. These will be woven into a single continuous flow designed to handle real-life tasks end-to-end — reservations, applications, payments — going well beyond simple information retrieval.
The AI models powering the service are developed in-house by South Korean companies. The service will run on LG AI Research’s K-EXAONE and Kakao’s Kanana, with rigorous quality and safety validation planned. Accessibility for digitally vulnerable populations, including the elderly and people with disabilities, has been set as a separate priority. LG Uplus plans to leverage its nationwide offline retail stores and telecom infrastructure to enable phone-only AI access without any app installation.
The Kakao consortium will first unveil a beta service in September, refine features based on user feedback and real-world usage, then launch the full service by year-end focused on validated capabilities. Through collaboration with LG Uplus, the group aims to release a Lite version of its general-purpose phone AI service within the year and expand incrementally, while also building an agent marketplace that allows promising AI companies to develop, test, and distribute specialized agents directly.
Kim Se-woong, Kakao’s AI Synergy Performance Lead, said: “The core of this service is enabling all South Koreans to easily encounter AI through the familiar KakaoTalk platform and to move beyond simple information search to completing the diverse tasks they need in daily life with end-to-end continuity. We will work with consortium partners to build a foundation for a national AI service that anyone can use effortlessly.”
Ko Jin-tae, LG Uplus’s Enterprise Strategy Lead, said: “Through AI for All, we will provide an environment where AI can be accessed with a single phone call — no app installation or separate registration required. Building on our nationwide offline stores and telecom infrastructure, we will extend AI benefits to the elderly and digitally underserved populations. As a core participant, we will fulfill our role and responsibility by combining the capabilities of Kakao and LG Group to contribute to revitalizing South Korea’s domestic AI ecosystem.”
Three Consortia, Three Distinct Touchpoints
With Kakao, SK Telecom, and KT all selected simultaneously, the AI for All program has set the stage for full-scale competition among three telecom and platform powerhouses, each connecting AI to its existing user touchpoints.
The SK Telecom consortium, centered on its proprietary model “A.X K2,” is positioning itself around “action-oriented AI” that goes beyond answering questions to directly executing tasks such as making phone calls, booking reservations, and handling administrative work. The group demonstrated integration with Government24 and PASS to issue 83 types of official certificates, and presented scenarios linking health checkup histories to hospital guidance and appointment booking. A beta service is targeted for October.
The KT consortium is championing “AI without channel boundaries,” bundling the Daum portal with lifestyle platforms including Musinsa, Zigbang, and EBS. The strategy is to deliver a consistent AI experience within services users already frequent. The consortium claims its combined service touchpoints reach over 60 million users.
The government will provide the three selected operators with a total of 512 NVIDIA B200 GPUs this year — 256 for the first-ranked operator and 128 each for the second and third. Starting in 2027, government budget will fund the costs of delivering nationwide services.
A Testing Ground for South Korea’s Domestic AI Ecosystem
The program also serves as a large-scale commercialization test for domestically developed AI models. The Ministry of Science and ICT has stipulated that operators must use South Korean-developed AI models meeting independent foundation model criteria for at least 50% of their service, and must additionally incorporate third-party domestic AI models at a rate of at least 30% beyond their own in-house models. Accordingly, Kakao is pairing Kanana with LG AI Research’s EXAONE, while SK Telecom and KT have each proposed combining multiple domestic models from companies such as Upstage and Motif Technologies.
Selected operators must provide the general-purpose AI chatbot and public AI agents free of charge to all South Korean citizens. The government plans to allow participating companies to charge for premium features beyond basic functionality or for personalized services. However, given the program’s mandate of free universal AI access, observers expect it will be difficult to generate revenue through approaches that impose significant costs on users. The key variable for long-term sustainability will be what revenue models operators can build once government support ends.
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to sign agreements with the three operators in September, establish a working-level coordination body, and launch the full AI for All service by year-end following the beta phase.