Capital and Business Tie-up to Promote AI Introduction

Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer: Masayuki Hyodo) and aiforce solutions Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Tomoaki Nishikawa; hereinafter, “aiforce”) have entered into a capital and business tie-up for the purpose of promoting the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and services into a wide range of business domains.

Many companies have endeavored in recent years to upgrade their existing businesses and develop new businesses by employing AI, IoT, robotics and other cutting-edge technologies (“digital transformation” or DX), striving to make use of operational data, optimize inventories, and improve the precision of market price forecasts. AI utilization requires preprocessing in which data scientists analyze and sort companies’ data, but there is presently a shortage of data scientists and the introduction of AI generally requires a long time and incurs high introduction/operating costs.

aiforce offers an “AMATERAS RAY” AI data analysis service that can take over the work of data scientists. AMATERAS RAY lets users with no particular expertise carry out operations with just a few clicks, enabling them to complete in as short as a few days tasks that might normally take data scientists several months. The company also supports the introduction of AI at a wide range of companies by offering consulting on AI introduction as well as support for developing prototypes and for combining RPA with AMATERAS RAY at lower prices. To allow companies to carry out data analysis operations on their own with in-house resources using AMATERAS RAY, aiforce also provides e-Learning programs, corporate training programs, and AI educational services developed with universities and other parties.

Sumitomo Corporation and aiforce are aiming through this capital and business tie-up to promote the introduction of AI into various business domains, including the Sumitomo Corporation Group’s manufacturing, distribution, retail and service operations, to optimize operations through the use of operational data, to provide further added value, and to create competitive advantage. Sumitomo Corporation Group’s network will also be used to help aiforce expand its business both inside and outside Japan.

Sumitomo Corporation has advocated DX as a means for creating next-generation businesses within a group-wide growth strategy in its Medium-term Management Plan 2020. This capital and business tie-up with aiforce will accelerate the introduction of AI within the Sumitomo Corporation Group, and lead to the development of skilled human resources in AI through educational programs and personnel exchanges.

Looking toward the advent of an age of intense competition in which data becomes a determining factor in corporate value, aiforce hopes to do its part in bringing about a world in which all people can be literate in and proficient with AI. It is aiming through its capital tie-up with Sumitomo Corporation to increase the sophistication of its analysis and educational platforms and make them more general-purpose, leveraging the knowledge gained in promoting DX by utilizing the data on various business sectors/formats possessed by the Sumitomo Corporation Group.

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