TLDR: South Korean tech giant Kakao has partnered with OpenAI to launch Kanana AI, an advanced AI assistant deeply integrated into KakaoTalk, Korea’s leading messaging app. Set to debut at Kakao’s ‘If Kakao’ developer conference in September 2025, Kanana AI aims to revolutionize localized chat by combining OpenAI’s generative AI capabilities with Kakao’s extensive user data, with a public rollout expected by year-end.
Kakao, South Korea’s dominant internet company, has announced a significant collaboration with OpenAI to introduce ‘Kanana AI,’ a new artificial intelligence service designed to transform digital communication in the Korean market. This strategic partnership seeks to blend OpenAI’s cutting-edge AI technologies, including the core capabilities of ChatGPT, with Kakao’s rich local user data and platform insights, creating a highly localized and intelligent chat experience.
Kanana AI is slated for its official debut at Kakao’s annual ‘If Kakao’ developer conference in September 2025, with a public launch anticipated before the end of the third quarter or by year-end. The service will be deeply integrated into KakaoTalk, the nation’s most influential mobile communication application, which boasts a remarkable 75% market penetration and approximately 50 million users as of 2015. This integration positions Kanana AI as a ‘middle layer’ that will provide context-aware actions and recommendations seamlessly within the messaging platform.
The AI assistant is designed to enhance user interactions by performing various functions, such as summarizing group conversations, setting meeting times for events, answering questions, and sharing updates. Kakao CEO Jeong Shin-ah emphasized the company’s commitment, stating, ‘We are preparing at full speed to deliver an AI service that everyone in Korea can easily access and benefit from.’
This collaboration is a pivotal component of Kakao’s broader AI strategy, marking a shift from internal AI model development to large-scale service deployment in the second half of 2025. Kakao aims to replicate its mobile-era dominance in the emerging AI agent era, with Kanana AI serving as a flagship offering within its expanding AI ecosystem, which will encompass infrastructure, proprietary language models, AI agents, and consumer-facing B2C services.
Data privacy and security have been a key consideration. According to a government review requested by Kakao, chat data generated by Kanana AI must be stored in a database controlled by Kakao and cannot be used by OpenAI for commercial purposes. This ruling by the Personal Information Protection Commission addresses concerns about sharing sensitive personal information.
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Furthermore, Kakao is making substantial investments in its AI infrastructure, including a 600-billion-won investment to construct a 92,000-square-meter AI data center in Namyangju, slated to break ground in 2026 and open by 2029. This aligns with South Korea’s national commitment to AI leadership, which includes plans for $65 billion in infrastructure investments and the deployment of 15,000 advanced GPUs by 2027, providing a robust computational foundation for sophisticated AI services.
