We are Shaping the Future! Showcasing Success Stories as We Innovate for a Sustainable Tomorrow
In recent years, the development of generative AI has been garnering significant attention. Recognizing its effective use as a key driver of business growth, OMRON launched AIZAQ*1 in 2023, a companywide project promoting the voluntary use of generative AI by employees. Initially designed for employees in Japan, AIZAQ encourages participation based on employees' own "WILL" with their superiors' support. These employees collaborate with peers to explore ways to leverage generative AI in daily operations, fully utilizing their individual skills.
*1 "AIZAQ" stands for "AI with Zest, Accelerate, and Quest," which is meant to evoke associations with Sir Isaac Newton and his wisdom and intellect as a scientist.
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Generative AI is advancing rapidly, but relatively few companies have actually made practical use of it. According to a survey conducted from June to July 2024 by Teikoku Databank on the latest trend among Japanese companies,*2 only 17.3% reported "using" generative AI.
While expectations for its potential are high, real risks to the companies' credibility persist, such as AI tools exposing confidential information or spreading false, AI-generated content. The very existence of such risks makes it difficult for companies to promote the internal adoption of generative AI, adding to their concerns. For companies to leverage this emerging technology, management's understanding and employees' acquisition of relevant knowledge and skills are crucial. Addressing associated risks and challenges is equally important. Yet, given the technology's complexity and the evolving nature of its risks, creating an environment where both management and employees can safely and effectively use generative AI is no easy task. This article shares the story of an initiative to leverage generative AI to increase operational efficiency and create added value while navigating these hurdles under the banner of AIZAQ.
*2 Analysis of the Latest Trends Among Japanese Companies on the Use of Generative AI, TEIKOKU DATABANK, Ltd.: https://www.tdb-college.com/column/up_img/1726019984-411430_p1.pdf (Ref. Oct. 22, 2024)
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One of the challenges to effectively using generative AI was gaining management's understanding. Initiated by the strong desire of employees to "realize smart work styles" and "maximize the value we provide to customers," AIZAQ was launched within just three months of initial discussions. This rapid progress was driven by the alignment of employees' passion with management's determination to "change the way we work to prepare for the next five to ten years or risk stagnation." Management's zeal stemmed from their early participation in generative AI training sessions, which deepened their understanding of its potential. Following the project's launch, management urged the IT team to start developing safe and secure generative AI tools integrated with the company's core systems. Meanwhile, IT, legal affairs, and other related departments worked together to draw up guidelines and FAQs on generative AI. Furthermore, the AI Governance Committee, an internal body that serves as a contact point for inquiries on risks and decisions regarding the use of generative AI, was formed. Through joint efforts, employees and management built a system and guidelines essential for the effective and responsible use of generative AI.
Managing Executive Officer Hidetaka Ishihara endorses AIZAQ with employees
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The second hurdle in utilizing generative AI is the lack of knowledge and skills among employees. To complicate matters, a significant gap exists between those who are proficient and those who are not, hindering companywide adoption of the technology. For AIZAQ, teams are formed for each use case ("theme") under review, consisting of a theme leader and members who join voluntarily because they have an awareness of challenges in their operations and have a vision for improvement, along with backers (technical advisors and supporters) with expertise in generative AI. AIZAQ uniquely assembles a cross-departmental team with diverse affiliations and job titles. The theme leader and members join the AIZAQ project with a WILL to "resolve issues of their organization," rather than merely addressing themes assigned by their department. With the WILL of the theme leader and members driving the initiative, combined with support from backers who provide technical advice during the testing phase, even employees new to generative AI can actively learn and verify use cases.
Roles of the AIZAQ team members
Once the project got underway, it became clear that while some themes progressed smoothly through the testing phase, others faced technical challenges, causing discrepancies in progress. In response, they added a knowledge-sharing function to AIZAQ, enabling teams to share verification results and insights gained in the process companywide. By publicly showcasing a specific theme's use case on the internal website, they provide valuable clues for verifying other themes. A key aspect of AIZAQ is the openness of all participants. They form chat groups to casually share updates on each theme's progress, small takeaways, and practical tips, fostering a growing culture of mutual learning across departments.
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One season of AIZAQ lasts for six months. More than 90% of the 24 themes enrolled for the AIZAQ Season 1, which started in September 2023, concluded that "generative AI is effective in resolving work-related issues." Notably, significant reductions in person hours were demonstrated for routine tasks such as summarization, classification, extraction, generation, and correction, which previously required substantial effort and were difficult to streamline. Subsequent verification revealed two key factors common to themes that successfully resolved issues: The first point is clearly pinpointing issues and their root causes after visualizing the entire business process. The second point is gaining a solid understanding of what generative AI excels at and where its limitations lie. In other words, effectively resolving work-related issues with generative AI requires appropriately applying the technology to specific processes within the workflow where it performs best.
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Season 2 of AIZAQ, which launched in April 2024, saw 25 project themes take off, including ongoing ones from the previous season and new ones, with 253 employees proactively participating from across the company. Among such AIZAQ project themes is the Voice of Customers Analysis Project, which leverages generative AI to analyze vast amounts of customer feedback on OMRON's healthcare products and applications, aiming to promptly incorporate customer needs into products and services. The verification process thus far has revealed the expected effect of using generative AI to improve the "process of automatically sorting customer feedback" and the "process of exploring customer demand through dialogue," resulting in time-saving, high-quality analysis when fully integrated into actual operations. With high internal and external demand for "effectively utilizing vast amounts of data to enhance products and services," this theme's results could drive service improvements and the development of products aligned with customer needs across various business areas.
Beyond this, other promising themes are undergoing verification to increase work efficiency and create added value, such as "improving efficiency in handling customer inquiries," "streamlining the decision-making process," and "automating document preparation."
As verification efforts progress in Japan, a growing number of overseas employees are expressing their aspiration to "use generative AI more actively" and "share their knowledge globally throughout the company." To support the global adoption of generative AI, frameworks and guidelines are being developed to ensure compliance with the AI-related laws and regulations specific to each host country/region.
AIZAQ entry themes (excerpts)
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The AIZAQ initiatives thus far have demonstrated how to realize smart work styles by increasing operational efficiency through the effective use of generative AI. However, our exciting journey has just begun. One of the corporate philosophies of OMRON's founder, Kazuma Tateishi, reads, "To the machine, the work of the machine, to man the thrill of further creation ." What OMRON aims to achieve through the project for promoting the use of generative AI isn't just higher operational efficiency. Rather, we aim to contribute to the creation of a more enjoyable, creative, and sustainable society by reallocating resources freed up through increased efficiency toward innovative projects driven by our employees' ideas.
