Kakao Launches AI Agent Partnership with Coupang Eats, Declines AI Infrastructure Investment

According to Kakao CEO Jung Shin-a at the company's Q2 earnings call on August 6, Kakao is launching an A2A (Agent-to-Agent) partnership with Coupang Eats to integrate AI-powered food delivery services into KakaoTalk. The AI will analyze user ordering intent and preferences to recommend menu items, creating new usage habits. The collaboration marks the first vertical domain for Kakao's Agent AI, with plans to expand into commerce, reservations, travel, and payments.

Jung emphasized that Kakao will not pursue AI infrastructure investments such as data centers, GPUs, and cloud services, citing rapid hardware obsolescence and declining long-term profitability as key reasons. Instead, the company will focus on model and service layers. For 2026, Kakao forecasts revenue growth exceeding 10% and operating margin surpassing 10%.