Kakao said on the 6th that it was selected as the implementing company for the "AI Agent Marketplace development support project," overseen by the Ministry of Science and ICT and run by the National Information Society Agency (NIA).
Kakao will form a consortium with Kakao Enterprise to build a private sector-led open ecosystem by Dec. 2027. The project will be promoted with a total budget of about 11 billion won, combining government contributions and private matching funds.
The "AI agent marketplace" is a platform where users can search for and use everything from AI agent services to agentic AI tools in one place. The Kakao consortium plans to build an AI agent ecosystem that provides the full process on a single platform, from agent registration and verification to discovery, composition, execution, and settlement. It aims for a first launch within the year and plans a second launch in 2027 after an advancement phase that includes an agent studio.
The marketplace will be designed with an open architecture that is not tied to any specific cloud or AI model. In addition to Kakao's in-house AI model "Kanana," it will connect a range of domestic and overseas AI models, and support seamless integration of tools on the platform via external interfaces (API) and protocols (MCP).
To ensure reliability, all AI tools registered will be posted only after multiple verification steps, including security reviews, sandbox testing, and hallucination control, and a standing revalidation system will operate during the service phase.
To build the marketplace, the Kakao consortium plans to deploy a range of technical capabilities. Kakao currently operates the open platform "PlayMCP," which hosts more than 400 MCP servers, and the AI agent development tool "AI Agent Builder." It is also providing the pilot service "AI National Secretary," launched in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
Kim Se-ung, Kakao AI synergy performance leader, said, "We are at an inflection point where demand and supply for AI agents are opening simultaneously," and added, "Based on Kakao's AI capabilities and platform operations experience, we will establish a standard for an AI agent ecosystem that anyone—from developers to corporations—can trust, and operate it as a sustainable marketplace."