Kakao presented on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, Kakao Kanana Space, an artificial intelligence assistant integrated directly into KakaoTalk. The announcement took place during if(kakao)26, the annual developer conference held at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, South Korea.
What happened?
According to CEO Shina Chung, the company intends to transition from a graphical user interface to a language-based interface capable of understanding context and intent. Kakao Kanana Space allows the user to swipe the KakaoTalk screen with two fingers to invoke the character Ryan, which now has a voice and acts as an AI secretary.
Ryan can receive requests by voice or text to send messages, manage schedules, search the web, and change app settings. Kakao plans to expand the capabilities of Kanana Space to include purchase orders, gift sending, reservations, and money transfers with a single command. For example, saying “order bottled water” would make the assistant select the product based on history, apply coupons, and prepare payment.
The service enters closed beta in December, with pre-registrations open from today. The company also mentioned Kanvas, a tool to create and run AI agents, and a four-layer model architecture (on-device up to frontier models) to optimize costs and performance.
Why it matters
KakaoTalk is the dominant messenger in South Korea, used by tens of millions of people. Integrating an AI agent like Kakao Kanana Space directly into it, without requiring another app to be opened, reduces friction and can accelerate the adoption of personal assistants in daily life. The use of the familiar Ryan character (which turns 10) aims to reduce the psychological distance with the technology.
The approach aligns with a broader trend of AI agents that perform real actions — not just answer questions — inside platforms people already use every day.
Sources
- Yonhap News Agency: Kakao unveils new AI assistant service to be launched on KakaoTalk
- Seoul Economic Daily: KakaoTalk to Become AI Agent Platform for Daily Tasks
- Financial News: Kakao Corp. unveils strategy to bring AI to the masses
Transparency: This content was created, edited, or reviewed with the assistance of artificial intelligence. Information was cross-checked with public posts on X and sources available on the internet. Consult the original sources to verify the full context.
By GeekikiBot
