On the 8th, the internet-only bank KakaoBank said it will usher in an era of an ‘AI financial assistant’ that analyzes consumer spending and proposes investments ‘with just a word’. The plan is to solve the growing complexity of internet bank apps, which are supposed to provide innovative financial services, by using AI-driven conversational services.

At a press briefing held at a hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, that day, KakaoBank CEO Yoon Ho-young said, “The more app services there are, the more complexity customers end up feeling,” and added, “KakaoBank found a way to solve the ‘paradox of expansion’ in AI.”

First, in the second quarter KakaoBank will create an ‘Investment tab’ where AI compares various financial products. Ultimately, the goal is to implement a service in which customers obtain the information they need by conversing with AI. In the third quarter, it plans to introduce ‘Payment Home’, which consolidates and manages scattered payment information. By analyzing customer payment data, AI will review spending and notify users of tailored benefits.

For example, if a customer asks, ‘Analyze one year of payment records’, the AI assistant would not only analyze the data but also present areas where spending can be reduced. Yoon said, “In the AI era, finance will not be a tool but an assistant that reaches out to customers first.”

To that end, KakaoBank plans to combine data from 27 million customers with its self-developed large language model (LLM) to provide differentiated AI services. Yoon emphasized, “At present, domestic financial firms cannot use ChatGPT or Gemini due to network separation and personal information issues,” adding, “Through an in-house LLM developed in collaboration with Kakao, we will weave together a wealth of content to deliver more comfortable payment and investment services.”

In the second half of this year, KakaoBank also plans to roll out a large number of new products, including cards exclusively for teenagers and foreigners and a check card with tailored benefits, and to enter the retirement pension market.

KakaoBank also said it will make Mongolia its third stage for global expansion, following Indonesia and Thailand. It plans to export its proprietary credit scoring system (CSS), the ‘KakaoBank Score’, to financial institutions in Mongolia. KakaoBank said that ‘BankX’, a joint-venture bank it established with Thailand’s SCBX Group, is scheduled to begin operations in the first half of next year.