Mickey Mikitani: The age of agentic AI has arrived

“This year, we’ve renamed our flagship event from Rakuten Optimism to Rakuten AI Optimism, reflecting our belief that AI is fundamentally transforming the world.”

Kicking off the sixth iteration of Rakuten’s biggest annual business conference, Rakuten Group Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani had a clear message: artificial intelligence is not a trend, but a foundational force.

“When I started Rakuten, I believed the internet had the power to change the world, and I committed to building something that could make a real difference.” Thirty years on, Rakuten has become a leading force across industries including e-commerce fintech, and telecom – a crucial pillar of the recent AI boom.

“We especially wanted to support small and medium-sized businesses across Japan, including those in regional areas. That passion still drives us,” Mikitani said. “Society is undergoing major changes, and we want to leverage AI not just to adapt, but to grow together.”

The new Rakuten AI is agentic

“AI is no longer just a super search engine. It’s evolving into a super personal assistant, a digital agent that understands user intent, anticipates needs and acts autonomously.”

Mikitani described a fundamental shift in AI, noting that while generative AI has mastered producing text, images and code based on prompts, agentic AI goes a step further: it acts. It understands your needs, makes decisions, and carries them out.

“This goes beyond chatbots. It’s about AI booking your trip, arranging your return train, helping you shop – all based on your preferences, profile and previous behavior,” he said. “AI is no longer just about answering questions; it’s becoming action-oriented.”

With its new focus on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, the event proved the perfect stage to introduce Rakuten’s next AI evolution: the all-new Rakuten AI. This unified platform brings together services and features like Rakuten Link AI and Rakuten AI Assistant under a single umbrella.

“The new Rakuten AI is more than just a logo; it symbolizes co-creation and evolution,” Mikitani told attendees. “This isn’t just a new digital tool; it’s about a digital version of yourself handling tasks for you. As it learns your preferences, it becomes more intelligent and more human-like.”

Rakuten AI is especially strong in Japanese-language processing, and has agentic capabilities built in from the ground up. It is fully integrated into Rakuten Link, the mobile app used by all Rakuten Mobile customers.

“This AI acts as your super-agent across the entire Rakuten Ecosystem – shopping, finance, travel and more.”

The goal is seamless, proactive support across all Rakuten services. Snap a photo of an outfit, and Rakuten AI will find similar items in your price range. Ask it to plan a golf trip in Hokkaido, and you’ll have a personalized itinerary in seconds.

Rakuten AI will also bring more advanced search capabilities to platforms like Rakuten Ichiba.

“Even search results are evolving,” Mikitani said. “Instead of keyword matching, results will be personalized based on your history – whether you like premium French wine or budget Californian bottles. You won’t even have to set filters; AI will anticipate your needs.”

Rakuten’s data goldmine

“Data is like gold. Algorithms matter, but without data, they’re useless.”

Rakuten AI is powered by more than 3 trillion customer interaction logs annually. From card transactions to travel and shopping behavior, Rakuten’s ecosystem generates one of the richest behavioral datasets in the world.

The rise of Rakuten Mobile – which has already reached more than 9 million subscribers this year – has proven to be a particularly powerful addition to the ecosystem. “You can’t use AI without connectivity. As AI becomes embedded in devices, seamless and affordable digital infrastructure is essential.”

“Rakuten Mobile users now average 31.2GB of data usage per month, and younger users often exceed 70-80GB. We’re entering an age of unlimited access,” Mikitani said. “The level of behavioral understanding that this affords us allows us to create highly personalized AI services that are not just reactive, but predictive. That’s why we believe Rakuten is uniquely positioned to build world-leading AI.”

Japan is falling behind

“Today, around 1.2 billion people are using AI regularly. Adoption is outpacing even the rise of the internet and smartphones,” Mikitani said. “We’re approaching a world where everyone uses AI – whether consciously or not.”

But Japan, he warned, is in danger of being left behind. “At the national level, the ability to fully utilize AI will become a key differentiator. Unfortunately, Japan is lagging behind.”

Adoption of AI tools in Japan is low: “Just 26% in early 2024, compared to over 80% in China. Among people in their 50s and 60s, less than 20% have even tried it,” he added. “Our overall AI utilization is only around 20% of that of the U.S. We’re behind China, Europe, South Korea and India.”

This shortfall is both a challenge and a call to action.

“That’s why Rakuten aims to empower Japan through AI. We want to make AI accessible and usable without people even needing to be conscious of it – both for consumers and businesses.”

Tech to better connect humans

“We believe that the final key is always people. AI is a tool, not a replacement,” Mikitani said. “For example, a handcrafted luxury handbag made entirely by robots will never carry the same meaning as one made by an artisan. The human touch matters – and that’s also true in services.”

Mikitani made his position clear: Rakuten isn’t building AI to replace people. Rakuten’s efforts in the AI space are about amplifying human connection.

“In the end, it’s about people connecting with people, and how AI can make that process more efficient,” he said. “When we combine human experience with collective data and apply the power of AI, we can create the world’s most advanced and most human AI.”

He closed his address with a call for cooperation on a positive future for AI: “Let’s embrace this future together. At Rakuten, we’re building the most powerful AI platform in the world – for people.”