How to Boost Organizational Performance in the Future: Rethinking Work Through AI and Power Naps

On May 20, 2025, the event "Enhancing Organizational Performance by Leveraging People and AI" was held at MIRAI LAB PALETTE.

In the first session, Kazuaki Asada, who leads company-wide generative AI adoption at Sumitomo Corporation, spoke on "Embedding AI into Daily Operations: The Real Story Behind Sumitomo Corporation's Digital Transformation." He described the initiatives taken to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot (hereinafter "Copilot") – a generative AI service – globally across the company in April 2024, making Sumitomo Corporation the first Japanese company to do so.

*An in-depth article on Copilot adoption at Sumitomo Corporation will be published soon on Enriching+.

In the second session, titled "Strategic Rest: Is the Power Nap an Investment? Insights From Industry Leaders," Saaya Kato of Toyota's TOTONE-Z Advanced Mobility System Development Div. and Hiroki Sekine from ANA's, Quality Assurance Department at the Engineering & Maintenance Center took the stage.

Toyota has developed the strategic nap tool “TOTONE”, designed to provide a high-quality power nap experience.

A power nap is a short nap of around 15–30 minutes taken during the day. These naps have been noted for improving judgment, concentration, creativity and work efficiency by alleviating mental fatigue. Leading global companies recommend the practice. NASA has studied power naps since the 1990s. One study found that a 26-minute nap improved pilots' cognitive performance by 34% and mental alertness by 54%.
At Toyota, the TOTONE nap bed applies technology developed for comfortable car interiors and for preventing drowsy driving. "High-quality, short naps can help restore mental energy," says Kato.

She continues, "Getting less than six hours of sleep for several days in a row can reduce your attention span and decision-making ability to the same level as if you had stayed up all night. Japan has long been described as a sleep-deprived nation, and for many people, daily life simply makes it difficult to get enough rest, even when trying to avoid mental fatigue. What’s more, a decline in attention and judgment due to mental fatigue can lead to traffic accidents while driving or reduced work performance. That’s why we focused on the concept of the power nap – a short daytime rest believed to help restore mental energy. We developed TOTONE so that more people can easily take a high-quality power nap."

With these aspirations in mind, TOTONE was rolled out, leading to the decision to introduce it at ANA. TOTONE was introduced at ANA in February 2025, primarily in maintenance divisions located around Haneda and Narita airports.

Sekine says, "Our mission in the maintenance divisions is to deliver aircraft that passengers can board with complete peace of mind by performing high-quality maintenance while protecting the safety of our mechanics. Until now, we have promoted safety through systems such as more comprehensive regulations, certification acquisition, training and stronger inspection frameworks. However, the 'human physiological aspects' have been left to individual management. We decided to introduce TOTONE in the belief that if we could cover that area organizationally, our mechanics and engineering staff would be able to work with greater confidence, which in turn would contribute to improved performance."

The third session titled "How Will Traditional Working 'Norms' Continue to Change?" was a lively discussion in which Asada, Kato and Sekine shared their own perspectives and visions for the "future of work."

Looking one year ahead, Asada predicted that "sitting at a desk to work will no longer be the norm."

"Rather than the text-based communication through typing that is common today, I believe we'll see a growing shift toward speaking directly to AI to receive spoken responses in return. Voice is the fastest way to input information. And while it can lead to information overload, it also makes it possible to multitask – listening with your ears while looking with your eyes," says Asada.

Further, as more convenient applications are adopted, Asada envisions a future where AI "agents" autonomously carry out a wide range of tasks. As global corporations and major newspapers have suggested, this will mark the beginning of a new era of true collaboration between AI and humans.

Sekine, while pinning high hopes on AI-human collaboration, also raised concerns: "Because we have lived through the era of painstaking manual work, we believe that we can understand the background and thinking that leads to a conclusion and correctly evaluate AI's output. On the other hand, if they rely on their thinking by collaborating with AI from the first day they join the company, they may not be able to judge whether AI's output is good or bad. "

To this, Asada responded: "That's an extremely important point. Ultimately, if you hand everything over to AI, you lose your competitive edge and won't survive in the market. The Copilot we use literally means 'co-pilot,' but the pilot is still you. AI is merely the co-pilot. We must never lose sight of that and keep creating higher-value work of our own volition."

Kato then shared – drawing on previous work experience – his ambition to change the "norm" of working hours: "Right now, the standard is an eight-hour workday. But if we keep leveraging AI to boost efficiency, I think we could get to a point where shorter working hours could become the accepted norm. Wrapping up your work tasks more quickly and then engaging in diverse life experiences might even be more economically beneficial."

At the same time, Kato points out, "In professions like aircraft maintenance, where specific certifications are required and workers can't be trained overnight, labor shortages are more likely to occur. If we can concentrate human resources on these roles and run other AI- or robot-replaceable jobs more efficiently with fewer people, we could achieve a better balance."

Sekine agreed, noting: "Even in the maintenance industry, we're seeing greater use of digital technologies, such as AI-based image inspection and remote check. If we can further accelerate digital transformation, we might be able to focus more on work that truly requires a human touch, such as maintenance itself."