Kakao Adds 10 Partner Services to KakaoTools AI Agent Platform
The AMW Read
An already-known player (Kakao) extends its existing agent-tool ecosystem with a second wave of partners, updating the player map without changing the segment's trajectory.
Kakao Adds 10 Partner Services to KakaoTools AI Agent Platform
Kakao announced on September 11 that ten companies joined the second wave of partner integrations for KakaoTools, the AI agent layer embedded in ChatGPT for Kakao. OP.GG, Zigbang, and Hana Tour had already soft-launched their services, while Daiso Mall, Looksroo, Spacecloud, Shinsegae Duty Free, Shinhan Card, LF Mall, and Cheongyeon began connecting the same day. The move follows Kakao's first KakaoTools partner push in March and spans gaming (OP.GG), real estate and space rental (Zigbang, Spacecloud), travel (Hana Tour), finance (Shinhan Card), lifestyle services (Cheongyeon), and shopping (Daiso Mall, Looksroo, Shinsegae Duty Free, LF Mall). KakaoTools now connects 28 services in total, combining Kakao's own products, affiliate services, and outside partners. Kakao also said finalists from its PlayMCP-based "AGENTIC PLAYER 10" developer contest, 20 tools that passed preliminary screening, will be unveiled from September 16 through a new "Tool Challenge" menu.
The expansion shows Kakao positioning its chat interface as a distribution point for third-party services rather than building each capability itself. Instead of opening separate apps for shopping, travel booking, or card services, users can trigger a partner's service through conversation inside ChatGPT for Kakao, with Kakao acting as the intermediary that routes intent to the right tool. This reflects how AI agents reach consumers in Korea's messaging-first market: distribution value increasingly sits with whoever owns the chat surface, not the company shipping the underlying model. Opening the roster to categories as varied as duty-free retail and card issuance also suggests Kakao is testing which verticals generate usable agent traffic before committing further engineering resources to any one of them.
For partner businesses, a listing on KakaoTools is a low-cost new channel that doesn't require building conversational AI internally, but it also routes transaction flow through Kakao's chat surface rather than a partner's own app or site. Builders and investors tracking Korea's consumer AI market should watch conversion and repeat-usage data from this cohort: whether users complete transactions inside KakaoTools or simply discover a partner and finish elsewhere will determine if Kakao's agent layer becomes a real commerce channel or stays a discovery feature.
