Hello. I am in charge of Cinnamon AI public relations.

We would like to introduce the contents of the event held the other day, "Cinnamon AI x ABEJA Special Joint Seminar The Future of AI Utilization - With/After Corona Utilization".

Since the presentations were given by two companies that are attracting particular attention in the AI industry, we received many applications from people right after the event opened. During the event, we received many questions from the participants and it was a very lively discussion. For those of you who were unfortunately unable to participate, we would like to spread this within our company! We will deliver this as a seminar report to those who are interested.

■Seminar overview

Title: The future of AI utilization ~With/After Corona~

Date and time: June 2, 2020 (Tuesday) 16:30~17:30

Speakers:

Yosuke OkadaABEJA Representative Director, President, CEO and Co-Founder Born in 1988. Born in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. Started programming at the age of 10. Majored in CG in high school and won the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award at the National High School Design Championship. While attending university, he gave many presentations at CG-related international conferences. After working at an IT venture company, in September 2012 he founded ABEJA Co., Ltd., which handles social implementation of AI. In 2017, he served as a director of the Japan Deep Learning Association, which he established with other directors with the aim of improving Japan's industrial competitiveness through technologies centered on AI and deep learning. Since October 2019, he has been appointed CEO of ABEJA Technologies, Inc., a local subsidiary in Silicon Valley, USA.

Hirano futureCEO of Cinnamon Co., Ltd. Serial entrepreneur. Completed graduate school at the University of Tokyo. Engaged in research on recommendation engines, complex networks, clustering, etc. It was twice selected for the IPA Unexplored Software Creation Project in 2005 and 2006. Founded Naked Technology while still in school. Develops and operates middleware that allows you to develop apps on iOS/Android/flip phones. In 2011, the company was sold to mixi. Established Cinnamon Co., Ltd. in October 2016.

overview:

Due to the impact of the coronavirus, many companies need to automate or unattend their operations. How will the use of AI in companies progress in the future? What should each company do? How will the method of implementation change? Top executives from two leading companies in the AI industry held a webinar-style conversation on these topics.

Q. The state of emergency has been lifted, and the world is changing dramatically at this moment. It has already been two months that have required changes from traditional work styles such as remote work and staggered working hours, but will there be any changes in the use of AI during the With/After Corona pandemic?

<Hirano>

Although there are tasks for which AI is not suitable, there are three areas where its use can be expected to be promoted in the future.

① Face-to-face communication
Once all communications are recorded, when a question comes up, it will be possible to quickly refer to other people's past MTGs, etc. I think it can also be used in related tasks (motivation, engagement, etc.).

② Administrative processing related
Cinnamon AI is already working on automating individual tasks such as AI-OCR and voice recognition. This is the area that currently requires the most transformation. In the past, dozens to hundreds of people would gather in one office to work, but by introducing AI-OCR and reducing the amount of work done in the office, people no longer have to go to the office. All work will be completed. I think this kind of thing will become more common in the future.

③ Work that involves complex processes
This is a field where the use of FA (factory automation) is mainly promoted. Demand in this field is also expected to increase significantly. As the amount of investment in hardware increases, I think it is equally important to assess cost-effectiveness.

<President Okada>

I agree with Mr. Hirano regarding fields that will expand in the future.
While talking with a customer recently, I found out thatIs that work really only possible with the people who are there?'', but with the ban on the Three Cs and the spread of remote work, I think the time has come to reconsider this question.

Up until now, we felt that it would be a good idea to digitally migrate work processes over a long period of time, but in the past few months, we have started to think, ``This is bad!'' and ``We need to do it quickly!'' . Depending on how you look at it, I think this is an opportunity for society as a whole to enter a new timeline.

Q. From a global perspective, what position do you think Japan is in?

<President Okada>

I believe that Japan is far behind when it comes to the issue of utilizing AI. Currently, China and the United States are the top runners and are growing at a tremendous pace.
In the 1990s, when Japanese companies were at the top of the market capitalization rankings, how they succeeded as a global company was by implementing high-speed PDCA cycles through improvement processes, and by leveraging the power of optimization and leveraging the power of optimization. I think we were able to win because of the honesty of the people. In the future, similar trends will occur in digital as well.Incorporating AI in the digital space to drive improvement processes. We call it digital operations.I believe that putting effort into this is what Japan needs to do now, and it is a point of contention.

<Hirano>

AI is bigInternet AI・Business AI・Recognition AI・Autonomous AIIt is divided into four parts.

(Note: Regarding each role,here(See article)
Unfortunately, China and the United States are more advanced in the three areas of Internet AI, Recognition AI, and Autonomous AI, but I think Japan is quite advanced in this field of Business AI. The reason isJapan is a rare country in the world where the working population is decreasing.It has been estimated that by 2030, 10 years from now, there will be a shortage of 10 million workers in Japan, and I think there are already many companies that are short of workers.

In the media, AI is sometimes expressed as taking away people's jobs, but in reality, I think that if AI does not support people's work, it will be impossible to maintain current business.

Q.What do you think will be necessary for large companies to develop the necessary human resources and culture to advance AI in the future?

<Hirano>

I think you need two things: understanding and passion for AI.. In addition, once we reach the implementation stage, the understanding of the people in the field becomes important. Please see the materials below.

Published by Keidanren,AI Utilization Strategy ~Toward realizing an AI-Ready society~” is the document. The level of understanding of AI is defined for each role from level 1 to level 5.
I think it will be difficult to move up this ladder with our own efforts, so if we continue to hold seminars and other educational activities, we hope that the level of understanding of AI among everyone at each layer will gradually increase. I feel that it is.

<President Okada>

I'm angry with President Hirano. I would like to encourage you to take the Japan Deep Learning Association's G-test and E-test, but what I like about the qualification exam system is that if you have a goal, it's easier to work towards it. I am.
If you just gain knowledge about AI, it will only be a point, but if you look at your company's business and style after gaining knowledge, you will think, ``I wonder if it can be used in this kind of situation.'' I think that the dots become lines and spread out more and more.
Therefore, we recommend that you obtain the qualification as a first step.

Q. How will the way AI is introduced change in the future, and what actions should companies take?

<President Okada>

We will answer about changes in the way AI is introduced. A long time ago, many companies' purpose was to conduct PoC, and the more they did PoC, the poorer they became.
Recently, I have thought that it is not the time to only do PoC,“How can we bring AI into production as soon as possible?”I think this has become a point of contention.
Also, a common misconception is that many customers think that ready-made AI or revolutionary solutions will come out, but AI uses data from each company. I think it is extremely important to develop AI together with customers. ABEJA recommends that even if the accuracy of the AI model is not 100%, humans should start operation while supplementing the accuracy of the AI, and then we can clearly show the cost reduction effect etc. I am.

<Hirano>

In terms of actions that companies should take, I think the first step is to increase the level of understanding of AI throughout the company. Currently, many companies view AI as cost reduction due to its characteristics, but I think it is important to consider which tasks AI can be of value in terms of competitive strategy. .
In addition, in order to advance DX, I believe that it is important to accumulate success experiences even if you start small, so I hope that Cinnamon AI can help you with this.

Q. Please give us one last word.

<Hirano>

Although the state of emergency has been lifted, I believe we are now forced to change the way we work amidst the coronavirus pandemic. We would like to take this opportunity to advance DX with everyone at once. Let's do our best together.

<President Okada>

I think this is a rare moment in time when the world will change. I would like to see this situation as an opportunity and contribute to making the most of it. Thank you for today.

In addition to these seminars, Cinnamon AI also holds regular seminars.
To applyhereThank you for your understanding. If you have any other questions regarding this article or would like to discuss business, please contact us.herePlease feel free to contact us.

This time we co-sponsoredABEJAIf you would like to know more about the various seminars,here