AI智能体将推动通讯软件进化？

August 13, 2025 11:53 PM GMT Asia Internet| Asia Pacific Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Seoul Branch+ Seyon ParkEquity AnalystSeyon.Park@morganstanley.com+82 2 399-4936Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+ Will AI agents powermessengers to the nextevolution? Gary YuEquity AnalystGary.Yu@morganstanley.com Joanne LauResearch AssociateJoanne.CY.Lau@morganstanley.com+852 3963-1592Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., Ltd.+ We see mobile messaging apps as the first line of services toshowcase AI agents, with the potential to significantly improveuser experience, and drive higher traffic and new businessmodels. Execution will be critical, but we believe this potentialupside is yet to be reflected in share prices. Tetsuro Tsusaka, CFAEquity AnalystTetsuro.Tsusaka@morganstanleymufg.com+81 3 6836-8412 Luyuan Yang, CFAEquity AnalystLuyuan.Yang@morganstanleymufg.com +81 3 6836-8423 Mobile messaging apps in Asia could be among the first mainstream platforms toshowcase AI agents:Kakao, WeChat and LINE all have plans to roll out AI agents ontheir respective dominant platforms with the aim of significantly accelerating AIpenetration of the general public, enhancing the utility of existing services,attracting more third party apps to the platform, and leveraging their vast amountof data to further improve agent performance. While native AI chatbots (such asChat GPT) have caught on quickly with early adopters, we believe messaging appswill serve as the preferred platform for driving AI adoption in the mass market. S. Korea Telecoms, Media & InternetAsia PacificIndustry ViewIn-Line What’s Changed Successful integration could further expand the role of messengers into"superapps":We believe agents that can seamlessly complete tasks (shopping,reservations, taxi hailing, etc.) should drive higher traffic and create more revenueopportunities. We see a bull case where the utility of AI agents attracts a wider poolof third party apps to link with the messengers, resulting in a widening of thefunnel. Tencent's AI prowess to power WeChat, while OpenAI is behind Kakao and LINE:The showcasing of agents will also put a spotlight on the technology of two of theworld's most advanced AI companies. As was the case for messengers in their earlyyears, we expect benchmarking, hyper localization, and collaboration to driveplatforms up a steep learning curve. Where we could be wrong:1) AI agents fail to significantly improve the userexperience; 2) risk of large vertical players (e.g., ByteDance, Naver) offering theirown version of agents; and 3) global AI platforms (e.g., OpenAI, Google, Meta)disrupt the messengers. Morgan Stanley does and seeks to do business withcompanies covered in Morgan Stanley Research. As a result,investors should be aware that the firm may have a conflict ofinterest that could affect the objectivity of Morgan StanleyResearch. Investors should consider Morgan StanleyResearch as only a single factor in making their investmentdecision. Stock implications:For Kakao we see the launch of AI agents as an anchor catalyst,which we see driving much needed innovation to its platform. We raise our PT toW75,000, and reiterate our OW rating. For Tencent we see success with agentssolidifying its position as the leading AI adopter in China, and further expandingWeChat's dominance. We also see AI agents being an underappreciated upsidecatalyst for LY Corp, as investor expectation relating to LINE's AI upside is minimal,while room to increase engagement is significant. For analyst certification and other important disclosures,refer to the Disclosure Section, located at the end of thisreport. += Analysts employed by non-U.S. affiliates are not registeredwith FINRA, may not be associated persons of the memberand may not be subject to FINRA restrictions oncommunications with a subject company, public appearancesand trading securities held by a research analyst account. Why mobile messengers? Messengers offer an ideal setting for agents to significantly improve the userexperience A key characteristic with the three mobile messengers in Asia, KakaoTalk in Korea, WeChatin China, and LINE in Japan, is that each has evolved to be the dominant platform in itsrespective market. This means that a significant part of the total population is in on asingle platform, and the operators have capitalized on this traffic to offer services beyondcommunications. All three platforms offer shopping, scheduling, payments, andreservations, driving millions (or in the case of WeChat billions) of transaction a day. From the operators' perspective, well designed AI agents would enable users to completetasks with less friction, improving utility and overall user experience. Users are alreadysearching for gifts, sending cash to friends, and trying to order food delivery over themessenger - agents would ideally make this process simpler, faster, and more efficient. The fact that agents would be functioning on a single platform is critical, as it