Kakao has selected food delivery service Coupang Eats as its first agentic AI partner, building a real-world case that connects service suggestion, authentication, ordering and payment into a single flow inside a conversation.
Kakao's core AI services are "ChatGPT for Kakao" and "Kanana in KakaoTalk." Current usage stands at 13 million cumulative users, more than six messages sent per user per day and about eight minutes of average daily time spent. The company aims to reach 10 million monthly active users by year-end through further development.
Kakao is offsetting AI investment with growth in advertising and commerce. Over the medium term it intends to grow AI-based advertising models including search ads, while explicitly staying out of AI infrastructure and concentrating on improving consumer services.
Food delivery is an unusually favorable category for agents: the option set is finite, purchases repeat frequently, and transaction values are small enough that the cost of a mistake is low — good conditions for validating a chat-to-checkout flow.
For brands, the change to watch is the entry path. When opening an app, searching and comparing collapses into a single line of conversation, the competitive arena shifts from in-app search results to whatever grounds the agent's recommendation. Understanding what those grounds consist of, and which data they draw on, becomes the next problem.
Also worth confirming early: settlement and liability. Once authentication, ordering and payment run as one flow, mis-orders and cancellations raise the practical question of who handles them — best documented at the partnership stage rather than after.
For agentic commerce results and side effects in Korea, see AI Shopping Agents Arrive in Korea; for the citation-without-compensation problem, see Naver's AI Briefing Cut Blogger Income by 40%.
Coupang Eats, in an integration connecting suggestion, authentication, ordering and payment into a single conversational flow.
13 million cumulative users, more than six messages sent per user daily and roughly eight minutes of average daily time spent, with a 10-million monthly active user target by year-end.
Offset AI investment with advertising and commerce growth, build AI-based ad models including search advertising, and stay out of AI infrastructure while focusing on consumer services.
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