Case studies from ジェイフロンティア and ベルタ, which spoke at a forum in Tokyo on D2C organizations in the age of AI, were presented. The speakers discussed organization design based on AI, more efficient advertising operations, and efforts to eliminate reliance on individual employees and augment organizational capabilities.
Organizations are redesigning their structures around AI, with the assumptions underlying recruitment, evaluation systems and the division of roles being reworked. A common challenge that emerged was how to build a structure that increases results with a small, highly skilled workforce, and how to view AI not as an “efficiency tool” but as an opportunity to redesign the way an organization operates.
Atsuhiro Nakamura (中村 篤弘), president of ジェイフロンティア, pointed to the growing importance of moving from brands that are searched for to brands that are cited as purchasing behavior changes in the age of AI. He noted that many of the information sources referenced by generative AI are third-party media, while companies’ own blogs and advertisements are less likely to be treated as trusted information. He said the company therefore emphasizes a multichannel PR strategy centered on press conferences. In advertising operations, he presented results including lower CPA, higher ROAS and reduced analysis time.
The president of ベルタ, Takekawa (武川), positioned the purpose of introducing AI not as “improving efficiency” but as “eliminating reliance on individual employees” and “increasing the organization’s brainpower.” The company established an AI Promotion Office and is pursuing work-process design that incorporates AI throughout the organization. In day-to-day operations, it has identified 44 use cases, including the use of VOC data and coding automation, and is expanding the scope of its operations by using AI to support compliance with regulations governing the wording of product reviews.