Appointment as Representative Executive Officer and AX
Hello! I am Kansai (@unicco), Representative Director of Zaim, Inc.
As stated in the timely disclosure by our parent company, Kufu Company, I have been approved by the Board of Directors to concurrently serve as a Representative Executive Officer of Kufu Company. In addition, Zaim, which was previously 51% owned by Kufu Company, has become a 100% consolidated subsidiary. Furthermore, it has been decided that we will merge with another group consolidated company called Da Vinci Studio and change our name to "Kufu AI Studio" starting in July.
To put it simply, it is complex, dizzying, and difficult to understand... It can be illustrated as follows.
First of all, please rest assured that Zaim will continue to operate as a household account book service as before. I will serve as the representative of Kufu AI Studio, including Zaim. I will do my best to deliver an even more powered-up experience.
The reason for this new structure is to commit fully to AI across the entire Kufu Company Group and create a user-first new experience = AX (AI eXperience & AI Transformation: explained later) for that purpose.
Personally, since March 15th of this year when ChatGPT-4 was released, I have been interacting with ChatGPT and the OpenAI API almost every day, and I have felt the social impact brought about by AI firsthand.
一行もコードを自分で書かずに GPT-4 との対話のみでアプリを習作 pic.twitter.com/0gonwF18YY
— 閑歳 孝子 (@kansai_takako) March 21, 2023
We also established a new system that allows all Zaim employees to use ChatGPT Plus as a welfare benefit, and at the same time, we formulated "Guidelines for Business Use of Generative AI" to ensure safe usage. Perhaps because we moved relatively quickly, it seems that many companies and organizations have used them as a reference for their own guidelines.
ChatGPT Plus を全額補助する制度を始めるにあたり定めた「生成系 AI の業務利用ガイドライン」を公開します。
— 閑歳 孝子 (@kansai_takako) March 28, 2023
法務・DevOps エンジニア・データサイエンティストと協働して作りました。生成系 AI の活用ルールが決まっていない会社の参考になりましたら🧑💻https://t.co/uMwPiz0PfH#ChatGPT #生成系AI
As for our business, for example, we released a product called "Zaim Shopping Recipe AI," which extracts food items from recently entered household account records and suggests recipes while considering expiration dates. In addition, as a group, we have released a total of 9 features.
Right now, it can be said that the frenzy over ChatGPT-4 itself, which continued from March 15th, has subsided, and we are at the timing where full-scale application to businesses and services has begun. Many other companies are also making moves to create special task teams or new departments.
Amidst this, Kufu Company has decided to significantly change the organization itself to promote AI, with me joining Akita as a Representative Executive Officer in charge of the "User Experience Domain," and establishing the position of CAIO = Chief AI Officer, to which @hotchpotch has been appointed.
This has been a long introduction, but in this note, I would like to write about how I perceive the current social impact of AI and what kind of value I want to create as Kufu Company in the future.
The wave of change seems likely to arrive all at once
The social changes brought about by AI that have become clear through the flow starting with ChatGPT-4 are the greatest since I started working, and I predict that this is an impact that I will likely never see again in my working life.
What surprised me was the speed of its spread and its level of awareness. When I had meals with my parents and my parents-in-law during Golden Week, my mother and mother-in-law, who are over 70, brought up the topic of ChatGPT. When my mother asked me to "teach her how to use it" and I gave her a lecture, she immediately started asking questions and mastering it.
In the context of the internet, what is significantly different from the past is that this time it is a revolution in software, not hardware.
Until now, every time a device like a PC, feature phone, or smartphone appeared, the experience gradually shifted from those who could afford to buy relatively expensive terminals costing 50,000 to 100,000 yen. Because it can be used immediately by anyone from the smartphones that everyone already owns, I expect that changes will continue to occur rapidly from here on out.
Kufu Company emphasizes AX
We are a group that provides lifestyle services across a wide range of areas, from daily life domains such as shopping, childcare, and household account apps, to housing domains such as real estate trading and housing information sites and consultation counters, as well as marriage domains such as marriage information sites.
We want to evolve the value we provide and create a new, truly user-first living experience suitable for the AI era. We have decided to call this “creating new experiences through AI” AX (AI eXperience). If we consider AI to be the user interface (UI), then AX is positioned as the user experience (UX).
AI is ultimately just a means; what we want to achieve is providing value to users with AI as the premise.
Also, we have given AX the meaning of “AI Transformation,” not just DX (Digital Transformation). In other words, it is the image of replacing the “D” in DX—which involves digitizing tasks previously done by humans to improve businesses and society—with AI.
We want to make the entire Kufu Company a team where members of all job types naturally incorporate AI into their work and can focus on what only humans can do.
Please also read the article by @hotchpotch, who has been appointed as CAIO.
Seamless AX through proprietary data
So, what kind of AX do we want to provide? While there is little we can disclose at this stage, one worldview we can share is “a seamless experience that connects proprietary data and stands by each individual.”
Currently, the many services of Kufu Company are almost entirely unconnected. By connecting some of these, they will appear integrated from the perspective of each individual, and we want to create a user-first experience where users feel the services are truly for them.
One of Kufu Company’s strengths is that it possesses detailed, proprietary data on daily life. In a future where AI is more widespread, the success or failure of a service will depend on how much rare, proprietary data one holds and how well one can convert that into user experience. We intend to leverage these characteristics to realize the best possible AX.
In addition to this, we plan to promote research and development linked to new businesses and products, centered around the newly established department dedicated to promoting AX.
Sharpening the “ability to ask questions”
As we build an organization in the internet domain, I have been reflecting on what work members should be doing in this AI era. My current conclusion is that it boils down to “asking questions.”
As many have experienced with ChatGPT, AI is very good at performing tasks and generating ideas. However, to elicit useful output, it is necessary to “ask good questions and have humans put effort into communicating in a way that AI can understand.”
Personally, I believe that the need for the latter part—humans putting effort into communication—will decrease over the next two to three years as AI becomes smarter.
If that happens, what remains is the “asking questions” part. By engaging in a dialogue with AI about “why,” “what I want to do,” and “how to interpret things,” and by continuing that loop, I believe that both individuals and the business can grow significantly by discovering unprecedented ideas and minimizing tasks that humans do not need to do.
Conclusion
About 12 years ago, when I started the concept for Zaim, the theme I derived from the idea of “smartphones will become common, so what kind of app would a mother use when she switches from a feature phone?” was “money = household account book.” It was very attractive in that I could continue to have a personal stake in it as long as I am alive, and looking back now, I feel it was a good problem setting.
However, while developing and operating Zaim, I realized there was something more fundamental that I wanted to achieve.
That is, an experience where each individual, while living their diverse life—with different things they want to do and different things they must do—can notice new possibilities for themselves, such as 'I might be able to do this' or 'If I try that, my life might become more interesting,' and change their actions accordingly..
Until now, I have done my best to make that possible from the perspective of money. However, the more I digested the impact of AI, the more I felt that this could support users better not just with money, but in every phase of their lives. I felt this so strongly, and since it aligned with the vision of Kufu Company, this move came about.
The full-scale new structure begins on July 1st!
If you would like to enjoy this major change together and grow both the business and yourself, or if you are interested in using AI to create new user experiences and improve the organization, please reach out to us.
The following Zaim job openings are for recruitment as 'Kufu AI Studio,' which will merge and change its company name on July 1st.
In particular, the AI-related engineering positions are for the following four roles. For non-engineering roles, please search for positions via the URL above.
