Korean Tech Giants Develop AI Shoppers
South Korean tech platforms Naver and Kakao are reportedly racing to launch personal shopper AIs. These tools are designed to streamline product discovery, price comparison, and checkout into a single conversational interface. The adoption of such technologies in Asia may signal future consumer expectations for AI-driven retail experiences in Western markets.
- Naver's shopping AI agent is slated for a public release in late February 2026, with subsequent AI agents for travel and financial services planned for later in the year. These will be housed in a new "AI Tab" on Naver's main platform, set to launch in the first half of 2026. - Kakao is embedding its AI agent, "Kanana in KakaoTalk," directly into its messaging app, where it will analyze conversation context to offer proactive recommendations, such as suggesting gifts based on discussions about a friend's birthday. The service is scheduled to launch on iOS and Android in the first quarter of 2026. - The technology behind Naver's tool is HyperClova X, a large language model the company invested over $750 million in and trained with 6,500 times more Korean data than GPT-4. Kakao's agent is powered by its proprietary language model named "Kanana." - These tools are entering a lucrative market, as South Korea has the sixth-largest e-commerce sector globally, with an annual revenue of $92 billion. The market is projected to grow significantly, with some forecasts expecting it to reach over $5 trillion by 2030. - The strategic focus on shopping agents is driven by a clear monetization path; Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that customers using its "Rufus" shopping AI were 60% more likely to complete a purchase. - This move mirrors a global trend toward "agentic commerce," where AI handles the entire process from discovery to payment. In the U.S., OpenAI has enabled checkout from Etsy and Shopify within ChatGPT, while Google is partnering with Walmart and Target to allow purchases through its Gemini interface. - While Naver's tool will allow users to make a request like "find a body lotion with a lighter texture than my last one" and complete the purchase, Kakao is consolidating existing AI features like "AI Mate Shopping" into its new integrated messaging agent.
