Collaboration With SCSK Is Key: Inside Sumitomo Corporation Group's DAIS (Digital & AI Strategy)

Held in a hybrid format at Sumitomo Corporation's headquarters and online, the briefing attracted approximately 1,800 participants, including analysts, media representatives and employees of both Sumitomo Corporation and SCSK. Shingo Ueno, President and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation, and Tatsushi Tatsumi, Group CEO of the Digital AI Group, outlined the strategic vision underpinning DAIS, followed by a one-hour Q&A session with participants.

To begin the presentation, Ueno explained the vision underpinning DAIS: "The Sumitomo Corporation Group aims to leverage Digital & AI across all business frontlines to build new value creation models and lead the transformation of society and industry. We have three competitive advantages: our 'Business Frontlines' supported by some 900 consolidated operating companies and 100,000 customers worldwide; 'Digital Solutions' centered on SCSK; and 'Talent' equipped with the digital skills to envision and create new businesses. By fully leveraging these strengths, we will drive transformation backed by strong execution capability."

To turn this vision into reality, Sumitomo Corporation has established three strategic pillars: (1) Growth of SCSK, (2) Growth of Our Group through DAIS, and (3) Growth through collaboration between Our Group and SCSK.

Tatsumi then took the stage to outline the specific initiatives underpinning each pillar.

SCSK is a full-stack IT company providing both systems integration (SI) and network integration (NI). Regarding the growth potential of SCSK as envisioned by the Sumitomo Corporation Group – which made the company a wholly owned subsidiary in 2025 – Tatsumi explained as follows:

"SCSK's greatest strength lies not only in its top-class SI and NI capabilities but also in its ability to provide Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Rather than simply developing systems tailored to individual customer requirements, what is required is the ability to deeply understand customer operations, implement a combination of diverse systems and networks, and operate them stably over the long term. This is SCSK's strength, which remains unchanged even in the age of AI.

As AI adoption accelerates, customers will face new challenges, such as security, data governance, controlling the environment of increasingly complex systems, and maximizing the effectiveness of AI implementation. In this environment, we believe that there are significant growth opportunities for SCSK, which can drive customer transformation while supporting operations safely and securely, based on the customer trust it has built over many years."

Tatsumi also outlined the company's path toward both quantitative and qualitative growth under SCSK's new Medium-Term Management Plan (FY2026-2030). "In SCSK's new Medium-Term Management Plan, we have established our vision of evolving into an IT company on a whole new plane that will lead the resolution of social issues. By further strengthening our existing capabilities while leveraging the diverse resources that Sumitomo Corporation can provide as an integrated trading and business investment company, we will capitalize on our unique business platform to achieve dramatic growth. Specifically, we will pursue three initiatives: AI-driven self-transformation and business expansion, transformation into an offering-based model, and thorough utilization of competitive advantages and strengths, with the goal of doubling profit levels compared with FY2025 while achieving an operating profit margin of 15% or higher by FY2030," he said.

With SCSK poised for further growth, what future does the Sumitomo Corporation Group envision through DAIS? To answer this question, Tatsumi first presented a single slide illustrating the future of society and industry that the Group aims to create through DAIS.

Tatsumi also detailed the areas where the Group will focus its efforts to turn this vision into reality.

"The Digital ＆ AI industry consists of four layers: Applications, AI Models, Digital Infrastructure and Devices. Of these, the Sumitomo Corporation Group will focus primarily on the application layer, leveraging AI services, AI agents and related technologies. In the short term, we aim to deliver concrete results in existing businesses and operations, such as more sophisticated and efficient operations in the corporate domain. In the medium to long term, we aim to establish digital and AI implementation models across various industries, such as advancing entire supply chains and enhancing the sophistication of real estate infrastructure maintenance and inspection. Through these efforts, we will evolve our business structure into one in which Digital & AI are the source of our competitiveness, and ultimately lead the transformation of society and industry," he explained.

Finally, Tatsumi turned to the growth strategy built on collaboration between the Sumitomo Corporation Group and SCSK.

"In 2026, Sumitomo Corporation established the Digital AI Group, while SCSK launched the SCSK/Sumitomo Joint Development Division, creating a framework for advancing collaboration between the two companies. Moving forward, we will organize our initiative into three broad categories. First, we will combine each company’s strengths to enhance market reach and customer value proposition. Second, we will bring together each company’s businesses to enhance competitiveness and drive business expansion. Third, the Sumitomo Corporation Group will serve as SCSK’s first customer delivering solutions developed for the Group’s business frontlines to the market," he said.

An analyst attending the briefing asked where the two companies expect to focus their collaborative implementation efforts.

Ueno responded, "One area where we believe collaboration between Sumitomo Corporation and SCSK can lead to a revolutionary transformation of the business model is mobility. SCSK independently designs and exhibits its own vehicles. By combining this capability with the expertise Sumitomo Corporation has cultivated in the automotive sector, we can collaborate across the entire process from vehicle design to completion, as well as on the mobility system as a whole. As discussions and co-creation progress, we believe this has the potential to become a major business segment."

The briefing also introduced "D-Grade," a new certification framework launched in April 2026 to enhance and visualize the digital skills of all employees and executives. Explaining the initiative, Tatsumi said: "We are developing human resources who can truly contribute to value creation at the business frontlines – not merely accumulate 'Knowledge' – and promoting the placement of the right people in the right roles, thereby enhancing DAIS's ability to execute."

Ueno offered final remarks to close the briefing: "More than simply demonstrating that the full acquisition of SCSK was the right decision, we are determined to enhance the corporate value of the Sumitomo Corporation Group as a whole. Through DAIS, we will take our business to new heights and discover new frontiers through Digital & AI, while leading the transformation of society and industry. We hope that you will continue to follow our progress with interest."