Kakao unveils Kanana Space as KakaoTalk expands into AI interface

Kakao showcased an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, Kanana Space, for KakaoTalk on Tuesday, outlining plans to turn its flagship messenger into an interface for managing messages, schedules and shopping across its service ecosystem. “Over the past 15 years, Kakao has connected people with everyday life and bridged online and offline experiences with the goal of connecting everything in the world,” the company’s CEO Chung Shin-a said during its annual if(Kakao)26 conference at Kakao AI Campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. “We now aim to take the connections we have built to a new level.” The service, which is slated to begin a closed beta test in December, can be accessed from anywhere in KakaoTalk by swiping the screen with two fingers. Users can interact with it through voice or text to retrieve information from conversations, organize unread messages, manage schedules and adjust app settings. Kanana Space is designed to go beyond answering questions by using context from users’ past interactions to complete tasks. In a demonstration, the assistant identified work-rel