Naver, South Korea's biggest internet company, will launch a personal AI agent app by the end of the year, an app designed not merely to answer questions but to complete tasks: searching for a product, booking a restaurant or service, and paying for it.

Chief executive Choi Soo-yeon announced the plan on Thursday during the company's third-quarter earnings call, as Naver reported record quarterly revenue of 3.4724 trillion won, about $2.37 billion, up 10.7 percent year on year. Digital Today reported that the agent will draw on Naver's shopping, Place, reservations, maps and Naver Pay systems, turning a search into a finished transaction.

The announcement came with a reminder of what the AI push is costing. Operating profit fell 20.9 percent to 451.3 billion won, about $308 million, and net profit dropped 45 percent to 402.5 billion won, as spending on AI infrastructure, content and offline data rose. The operating margin narrowed to 13.0 percent from 18.2 percent a year earlier.

From answering questions to doing the job

The new app follows Naver's AI Briefing and AI Tab features, which already bring AI-generated summaries and recommendations into search. The personal agent goes a step further: it is meant to act on the user's behalf, linking the steps from product search to booking and payment in a single flow.

Choi said the agent would attract new users and open fresh ways of making money from AI, a point investors will watch closely. The Elec reported her telling the call that the company would use the personalised agent to reach new user groups and create additional monetisation opportunities.

Early signs suggest demand is there. Use of the shopping AI agent in Naver's AI Tab has risen about fivefold between March and September, while the value of transactions made through it has increased about fourfold. Flows connecting users from the AI Tab to shopping and local information services have nearly doubled since launch.

The AI Factory bet behind the app

The agent is only one part of a much larger AI investment. Naver said its AI Factory project, developed with Brookfield and Nvidia, has signed a computing-services supply contract worth 2 trillion won with a US AI inference company, including next-generation GPUs. Revenue from the project is expected to start flowing in the first half of 2027.

The wider business kept growing in the quarter. Naver Pay handled 26.2 trillion won of payments, up 15.6 percent, with payments made outside Naver's own services rising 21.8 percent. The company also plans a dedicated logistics subsidiary to strengthen delivery, and Smartstore transaction value rose 6.4 percent year on year.

What to watch next

The test for Naver is whether the agent app converts its shopping and payments reach into a product people use every day, and whether the AI Factory turns heavy spending into revenue from next year. The company has given itself weeks, not months, to deliver the first part: the app is promised before the year ends.

If it lands on time, Naver will have something its global rivals are still assembling — an assistant tied directly to the shops, restaurants and payment rails its users already rely on. If it slips, the falling profit line will make the wait harder to defend.