Asking Komazawa University: How to build an organization where over 90% of staff are self-driven and enjoy using AI

Hello, this is the official note editorial department for Google's AI, "Gemini".

Generative AI is being utilized in various ways within the field of education. Among these, one of the most highly anticipated themes is "DX (Digital Transformation) of university operations."

Therefore, this time, we will introduce "K-AI," an AI promotion project at Komazawa University, which utilizes Gemini and Gemini Notebook (formerly known as NotebookLM) for staff operations, based on implementation examples from universities across the country.

This project is an AI promotion initiative for the university's staff, and as part of it, "Google AI Pro for Education" was introduced to all staff starting in April 2025.

Six months later, in October 2025, staff satisfaction exceeded 90%, causing significant changes in operations.

We spoke with two people who have been promoting AI utilization: Takuya Takeda from the President's Strategy Planning Section, President's Office at Komazawa University, and Ryo Yamamura from the Application Section, Information Network Division, Comprehensive Information Center at Komazawa University.

We will introduce the initiatives at Komazawa University, ranging from the background of achieving a 90% monthly active rate in one year, to examples of Gemini utilization practiced by staff, and even marketing support for entrance exam promotion through AI analysis.

Tackling the challenges of a university with 14,700 students using Gemini

Komazawa University, with its campus in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, is a comprehensive university centered on the humanities, with 7 faculties and 17 departments.

Aiming for self-other co-creation, the university is also focusing on cultivating advanced IT talent, such as by planning the establishment of a new "Media Informatics Department (tentative name)" that integrates humanities and sciences in the Faculty of Global Media Studies in April 2028.

The number of students, including graduate students, reaches approximately 14,700, while the university is operated by a staff of about 200 and a faculty of about 340.

"There was a structural issue where the number of students per staff member was very high, and the operational burden on each staff member was greater compared to other universities," says Takuya Takeda of Komazawa University, who has been leading the "K-AI" project since 2024.

Furthermore, Mr. Yamamura, who has been in charge of AI promotion since the 2026 fiscal year, says, "As the functions required of the university increased, the work of faculty and staff became strained, and the challenge was how to reduce operational man-hours while resources were insufficient."

Therefore, leveraging the Google Workspace for Education environment already implemented at Komazawa University, "Gemini for Education" was adopted as a way to "utilize AI safely and seamlessly."

The goal of the project was to create an environment where it is natural for faculty and staff to use AI.

As of April 2026, one year after introduction, the monthly active users (MAU) of staff reached over 90% reached.

Mr. Yamamura also feels the penetration, saying, "I feel that the initial goal of 'using AI as a matter of course' has been realized."

Furthermore, regarding the background of this rapid growth, he analyzes, "Because Gemini was integrated into Google Workspace for Education, it became possible to use it intuitively from email and Drive, which significantly lowered the barrier to entry."

So, how exactly is it being used? We will introduce examples along with episodes from actual staff members.

Drastic reduction in work time! Gemini as a "partner to complement weaknesses"

Currently, at Komazawa University, Gemini and
Gemini Notebook are used in various university operations, from basic tasks such as document creation and email correspondence to web production, data analysis, and operational automation.

Among them, what is characteristic is that AI has become a reliable partner that goes beyond being a mere efficiency tool and compensates for the "weaknesses" of the staff.

Lowering the psychological hurdle of "writing"

Mr. Takeda himself feels the most effective use is in daily document and email creation.

"I am not good at creating documents from scratch and it used to take time. However, thanks to Gemini creating that 'zero to one' part, the hurdle for the first step has been significantly lowered, and I have developed a positive feeling of wanting to create materials more and more," says Mr. Takeda.

Also, in daily email correspondence, work that used to take 5 minutes per email now takes 1 minute. It seems that Gemini even faithfully reflects Mr. Takeda's meticulous attention to detail, such as "using hiragana instead of kanji for the 'sama' in the recipient's name."

Even in the initial estimates at the time of introduction, a reduction effect of about 126 hours per year per staff member was expected. Currently, because Gemini was integrated into Google Workspace for Education, email work can be done more intuitively, leading to an overwhelming time saving that exceeds that time.

Creating time-consuming slides in 5 minutes

Mr. Yamamura says he felt the benefits especially when creating slides.

“Until now, when creating slides, I would get hung up on fine details like design and text placement, which was a challenge that took a lot of time.

However, by simply having Gemini read the draft outline and the reference materials I have in Google Drive, it creates a slide outline that is 80% complete in less than 5 minutes.

By gaining a good partner that complements my weaknesses, I have become more proactive in my core proposal work.” he said, describing his own transformation.

Consolidating Organizational Knowledge into AI! Gemini Notebook Utilization Techniques to Eliminate Staff 'I Don't Know' Moments

While individual use such as email correspondence has become widespread, Komazawa University is also moving forward with building a business support environment using Gemini Notebook to solve issues unique to university organizations.

A prime example is the automation of inquiries regarding on-campus 'research expense rules.' The internal rules regarding faculty research expenses are extremely complex, and the university faced the challenge of the rulebook becoming thicker every year.

Therefore, as part of the AI promotion project activities, they built a 'chatbot Q&A' for faculty using Gemini Notebook.

“Initially, I was worried about concerns regarding hallucinations and whether there would be pushback from the professors.

However, when we rolled it out by fully emphasizing that it is a 'secure environment where confidential information is protected and not used for secondary training' based on Google's data policy, there was absolutely no pushback.

After switching to official operation following the beta version, we are experiencing the 'happy problem' of usage rates actually increasing,” recalls Mr. Yamamura.

This chatbot has been used almost every day since official operation began in April, and as of June, it has become established as a tool for faculty to resolve questions, with a total of 215 users and over 400 questions asked.

Furthermore, Gemini Notebook is also valued for knowledge sharing in various on-campus committees.

University committee terms are short, about two years, and members change frequently. As a result, a problem arose where newly appointed members would read materials or minutes on heavy, long-standing topics and say, 'I don't understand the context so far.'

To address this issue, Mr. Yamamura experimentally introduced an operation in some of the committees he is in charge of, where he shares the vast amount of minutes and related materials from the past three years by having Gemini Notebook read them.

This is expected to allow committee members to smoothly participate in essential discussions after confirming past history and information in advance using Gemini Notebook.

On the other hand, the staff members who run meetings and receive questions are also using Gemini Notebook. Previously, when questions arose in committees or meetings, it took time to find the relevant sections from vast amounts of materials to provide an answer.

However, by putting regulations and materials tailored to the agenda into Gemini Notebook in advance, they are now able to search quickly on the spot and answer smoothly.

From 'Years of Intuition' to Data-Driven! Entrance Exam PR Evolving with AI

A highly advanced use case unique to a university is Gemini's analysis support in entrance exam PR.

PR activities such as visiting high schools often relied heavily on the individual experience and 'years of intuition' of the person in charge. Therefore, the university is proceeding with data-driven marketing utilizing data held by the entrance exam PR department as a proof of concept (PoC).

Originally, integrating and analyzing vast amounts of data required specialized knowledge, making it a very high hurdle for general administrative staff.

Therefore, the university combined BigQuery and Looker Studio, which perform data accumulation and visualization, with Gemini Enterprise to build a system that allows advanced data analysis without difficult system operations.

Mr. Takeda calls this the 'democratization of data analysis and data utilization,' saying, 'Humans can make judgments based on analysis and connect them to the next action.

Through these efforts, we are aiming for a university environment where everyone can perform more effective work,' he says.

For example, when analyzing high school data in Miyagi Prefecture, they instruct Gemini to 'list high schools with high expectations for a significant increase in applicants to Komazawa University.'

Then, Gemini defines 'high schools with many applicants to competing universities but few applicants to Komazawa University' as having high potential, and automatically generates a list that visualizes which high schools to approach by comprehensively judging factors such as deviation scores and school size.

“Leave the specialized and high-hurdle task of analysis to Gemini, and humans look at the results to judge the next action of 'where and how to approach.' We are promoting the creation of an environment where everyone can perform effective work based on data.” (Mr. Takeda)

From 'Being Made to Do' to 'Self-Driven.' An Organizational Culture That Enjoys AI

How to involve the 'layer that doesn't use AI' is a challenge for many organizations.

Therefore, Komazawa University has opened an on-campus knowledge platform called 'Gemini Lab'.

They provide a site where staff can freely post and share useful use cases and prompts for their work, such as "ways to shorten email time," "easy slide creation," and "automation of manual input."

According to Mr. Takeda, posts that initially received no reaction and were only viewed gradually began to receive "likes" and comments.

“Instead of looking at AI coldly as just a trend, staff have started to take ownership, proactively finding and sharing new ways to use it,” he says, describing the change in the staff.

Currently, most feedback from staff consists of positive suggestions such as functional improvements, and a culture where staff independently enjoy using AI has become the foundation supporting the high utilization rate.

Using time created by AI for "student support that only humans can provide"

Currently, Komazawa University is considering expanding AI Pro licenses to faculty in addition to staff. However, the goal the project is looking toward is not just "improving the efficiency of faculty and staff work."

“AI is good at providing concise answers quickly. However, students who come to the counter for consultation have diverse backgrounds. That is an area where humans, not AI, should listen carefully and respond to each individual,” Mr. Yamamura told us.

Mr. Takeda also shared his vision, saying, “The most important thing for a university is the students. We will shift tasks that we don't need to do ourselves to AI, and dedicate the time created there to 'student support.' Creating an environment where we can focus on tasks that humans should do is the future we are aiming for.”

The case of Komazawa University shows that AI can be more than just a time-saving tool; it can be a reliable partner that compensates for human weaknesses and creates time for "human engagement."

The university's challenge, which looks ahead to "enriching education and support that humans should do" beyond efficiency, can be called a model case for new university management in the AI era.

For details on "Google Workspace for Education" introduced this time, please refer to the following site. Please also make use of the “Google AI Online Course” where you can learn systematically on-demand, from basic knowledge of Gemini and Gemini Notebook to preparation for certification exams.

▶ Google for Education Official Website
▶ Google for Education Learning Center
▶ Google for Education Certification Exams
▶ Google AI Online Course