South Korean media: "The gap with China is too big", Japan's SoftBank forces employees to use AI!
On July 31, South Korean media Etoday published an article stating that Line Yahoo, an internet company under Japan's SoftBank Group (SBG) led by Masayoshi Son, and the telecom company SoftBank are forcing employees to use artificial intelligence (AI) at work.
"Nikkei News" said, "It is rare for Japanese companies to force employees to use AI. Their goal is to accumulate AI application models and experience within the company, preparing for the 'AI agent' era where AI will make decisions and perform tasks instead of humans."
According to Microsoft data, as of last year, the generative AI usage rate in Japan was 32%, far below the global average of 75%, forming a sharp contrast with China (91%) and the United States (71%). According to data from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, only 49% of companies have established AI usage policies.
Line Yahoo plans to introduce a regulation requiring all employees to use AI at work. Initially, AI will be mandatory for research and search, data preparation, and internal meetings. A quantitative work survey conducted by the company in 2023 found that these tasks accounted for about one-third of the total workload.
In principle, responses to internal inquiries or market analysis will be handled by generative AI, and meetings will be changed to have AI organize agendas based on past meeting records and attend them. Meeting minutes written by AI will also become a mandatory requirement.
Line Yahoo mainly uses three AI tools, including ChatGPT from US-based OpenAI. The goal is to more than double internal work efficiency compared to 2024 by 2027. The plan is to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and accelerate the transition to work systems focused on face-to-face sales or AI development, which require creativity.
SoftBank requires all employees to participate in AI development. By this summer, each employee will be tasked with developing 100 AI applications. They will use OpenAI tools to create applications supporting data analysis, document creation, and other functions, and those applications proven to be useful will be fully implemented in actual work.
The SoftBank subsidiary PayPay has started discussing personnel and labor system reforms with AI as a premise. As AI replaces some internal work, it plans to gradually restructure methods of personnel evaluation, recruitment, and staffing over the next 2-3 years.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1839137672756236/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.