Too Corporation and AIC Collaborate on Event Showcasing How AI Can Be Used to Solve Social Issues

AIC collaborated with Too Corporation to host a “Business Competition to Solve Social Issues Using AI,” held over three separate days on March 4, March 11, and March 25. Fifteen people participated in the competition, split into five separate teams. Each team was challenged to draft and propose a business plan that will incorporate AI to help address a social issue that they have chosen to examine.

The guiding prompt for the competition was to “use AI to solve problems experienced in Japanese society.” The intention behind this prompt was to encourage participants to engage with specific, tangible issues by narrowing the focus to Japan, allowing them to approach social challenges from a more personal and realistic perspective. Another goal was to provide students with an opportunity to develop practical thinking and applied problem-solving skills, as the use of AI is becoming increasingly essential.

Event Summary

【Too Corporation Lecture (March 4)】

Yasuo Tezuka, the president of Too Digital Marketplace Inc. and CEO of Cryptolier Inc. gave a talk based on his own wealth of personal experience, relaying to participants about how to formulate ideas in a business context, how to manage an organization, fundraising and accounting, common issues that can spring up in a professional environment, and how to motivate employees.

After this, Gota Ishii, the president and CEO of Too Corporation, gave an introduction to the fundamentals of marketing as well as an overview of how to incorporate technology into a workflow, providing practical examples of how AI has been applied to marketing and general business practices.

At the end of the event, participants were split into teams and began an open discussion to generate ideas on how to solve social issues with AI.

【Preliminary Presentations (March 11)】

This event was centered on each team making a preliminary presentation of their ideas.

One by one, they gave presentations in which they defined the social issue they had chosen to address and outlined their ideas and strategies of practical ways they could use AI to solve this issue. Afterwards, others were invited to ask questions for a Q&A.

President Tezuka and President Ishii emphasized the importance of clearly defining the target user personas and specifying the challenges to be addressed. They also stressed that, while AI is assumed to be a practical and effective tool, it is crucial to demonstrate concrete ways they plan to use AI to solve these problems.

【Final Presentations (March 25)】

For the final portion of the event, each team put together 5-minute presentations that summarized the past month of discussions and pitched their business ideas on how to use AI to address a social issue.

Using the feedback from the preliminary presentations, they made sure to address the target demographics and user personas for their ideas, as well as specifics about how their solutions would be implemented.

During the Q&A time after the presentations, the judges asked cutting questions about the feasibility of each idea, the market sizes for the proposals, and specifics of how AI would be utilized in their plans.

At the end of the event, the judges provided overall feedback, commending all of the teams for the strong social impact and feasibility of their proposals.

The results of the competition were as follows.

Competition Results

• Grand prize: Team D, Yuya Shinji, Akimoto So, Takaaki Morita

Proposal: “Negative Filter Apps”

• Excellence award: Makoto Ito, Yoshinori Kaku, Miku Yamamoto

Proposal: “Undiscovered Japan: AI travel app for hidden gems”

• Participation award: Team A, Ria Takimoto, Shintaro Hashimoto, Keiichiro Watanabe

Proposal: “Sansaku: Avoiding crowds in Kyoto”

Comments from Participants

• “It was invaluable to be able to get practical experience working on creating business plans and ideas.”
• “It was fascinating to get feedback from people with so many different perspectives on things.”

Acknowledgments

AIC would like to thank everyone for their support in organizing and hosting this event, especially Gota Ishii, the president and CEO of Too Corporation, and Yasuo Tezuka, the president of Too Digital Marketplace Inc. and CEO of Cryptolier Inc.

AIC vice-chairman: Kenji Yasuoka
Project professor: Mari Kobayashi
AIC administrator: Fumio Kohno

AIC student administrators: Mei Yasujima, Kotaro Seki