- Yahoo Japan is betting that the mandatory use of AI can unlock innovation in the workplace
- The company’s plan begins with the automation of 30% of the daily tasks, such as meetings and documents
- Internal tools such as Seekai will handle expenses, research indications and summarize meetings notes
Yahoo Japan is taking a bold step by requiring that the 11,000 of its employees integrate the generative AI in their daily work, with the aim of doubling productivity by 2028.
The company, which also operates line, plans to make the tools of AI a standard part of tasks such as research, meeting documentation, expenses management and even competitive analysis.
The idea is to change the approach of routine production employees to a higher level thinking and communication by allowing AI to handle the bases and create continuous innovation.
30% first
The deployment begins in the most universal aspects of office life: areas such as the search, writing and routine documentation, which estimates that Yahoo Japan occupies approximately 30% of the time of its employees.
The company has already developed internal tools such as Seekai to administer tasks such as expenses and data searches using templates immediately.
The AI will also be used to help create agendas, summarize meetings and review reports, thus giving the staff more space to concentrate on decision making and discussion.
This movement may seem extreme, but follows a broader trend of companies that try to take advantage of AI as a productivity tool instead of only a cost reduction.
Yahoo Japan’s strategy assumes that automation is not only an efficiency tool, but a standard in the workplace, but there is increasing evidence that trying AI as a complete replacement for human workers can be myopic.
A recent Orgvue Claims report, more than half of the United Kingdom companies that replaced workers with AI now regret that decision. This speaks of a crucial distinction: although AI can support and rationalize, it often falls short in areas that require nuances, empathy or context of the real world.
In this sense, Yahoo Japan’s model, one that promotes AI as a support layer instead of a substitute, could be more sustainable.
This is certainly a sign of things to come, and from my perspective, the generative AI is not here to erase jobs, although there are reports of people who lose work in some regions.
AI should only change how work is seen by eliminating repetitive tasks and freeing space for critical thinking and creativity, where human entry remains indispensable.
Yahoo Japan’s approach, if it is implemented with care and flexibility, could help shape that change in a more inclusive and less disruptive way.
Through PC clock
