Introducing Rakuten AI for Business: A GenAI solution empowering Japanese businesses
Rakuten Mobile has launched a bold new service to empower corporate customers in Japan: Rakuten AI for Business. The service will allow companies in Japan large and small to take advantage of generative AI, regardless of technical proficiency.
A recent survey of 300 Japanese SME business owners and decision-makers, commissioned by Rakuten and conducted by Edelman Data & Intelligence, found that only 16% of respondents are currently using AI, and 40% of non-users said they struggle to identify AI’s potential benefits.
Drawing on Rakuten Group’s own experience in company-wide AI rollout, Rakuten AI for Business is designed to address key challenges businesses in Japan face when implementing AI. These include high costs/lack of expertise, security concerns and underutilization.
Most importantly, Rakuten AI for Business is a homegrown AI solution tailored for Japanese customers. “Rakuten AI for Business is built to help Japanese businesses succeed with AI,” commented Ting Cai, Rakuten Group Chief AI & Data Officer, “It’s a deeply effective AI solution for the Japanese market because we understand the unique needs of our customers in Japan, who we serve across 70+ businesses and multiple industries through the Rakuten ecosystem.”
Putting AI to work
As a generative AI service, Rakuten AI for Business boosts clients’ operational efficiency by reducing time and increasing accuracy in workflows. The AI service boasts advanced language comprehension and task processing capabilities and can handle a range of business tasks such as translation, brainstorming and analysis.
One of the key advantages of the service are customizable job-specific prompt templates that leverage Rakuten Group’s vast amount of successful AI use cases. “I would especially recommend that companies who are pressed for time leverage the prompt templates and efficiently use AI,” Kazuhiro Suzuki, Rakuten Mobile Co-CEO, said.
Other advanced features include a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) function, where company’s files can be uploaded to allow the AI to analyze and reference relevant data specific to that company’s needs. A dashboard also allows administrators to monitor the service’s usage across the organization.
To address the security concerns of corporate clients, the new service provides a secure environment for AI usage where user input data is never used for AI training without permission. Administrators can register restricted words in advance to stop employees from accidentally sending sensitive data used in prompt templates to the AI model.
Leveraging Rakuten’s AI tech and best practices for deployment
Rakuten AI for Business was first announced in November 2023, naming OpenAI as a strategic partner to develop the service and launching an invitation-only trial.
Over the ensuing year, Rakuten has proactively embraced AI tech across the Group, working both with the latest models from OpenAI, and developing its own high performance large language models (LLMs) from scratch.
Rakuten AI also plays a crucial role in the company’s Triple 20 initiative to boost marketing efficiency by 20%, operational efficiency by 20%, and the efficiency of clients – such as the merchants and hotels on the company’s platforms – by 20%.
As part of Rakuten AI for Business, Rakuten Mobile will also provide personalized corporate training on generative AI, as well as optional consulting services (at additional cost) to assist companies with their specific cases.
“We can also offer consulting to support companies in setting KPIs for AI rollout based on our vast experience,” Mr. Suzuki commented.
Making AI accessible to everyone
Rakuten Mobile has prioritized flexible accessibility for the new tools: Rakuten AI for Business does not require any powerful hardware, but can be utilized entirely through a PC, tablet, or smartphone – anything with a browser. The cloud-based nature of the service also allows for syncing across different devices, allowing for total adaptability to any business environment.
Pricing for the service is attractive, launching at 1,100 yen (just over $7 USD) per license per month. Rakuten AI for Business is currently available for all corporate clients in Japan via Rakuten Mobile in Japan. New customers will also receive a one-month trial free of charge to learn how to implement the service in business operations.
“Previously, Rakuten Group has announced its vision for the democratization of AI,” Rakuten Group Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani said at the launch ceremony. “With Rakuten AI for Business, we want to expand this initiative and prove Rakuten AI to a wide range of companies.”
To facilitate smooth onboarding for customers who are hesitant to adopt AI, or those who are unsure of how to use AI, Rakuten will leverage expertise gained from the group’s own extensive implementation of AI to share successful AI use cases and offer personalized online corporate training. To further support customer success after service deployment, Rakuten Mobile will also offer optional consulting services. With the service now out in the field, the Rakuten Mobile team will be on the lookout for new ways to improve.
