AI inside Researched on AI In-House Development and AI Human Resource Development in Japan

About 60% of companies implementing AI responded they promote in-house AI development

Tokyo, December 21, 2021– AI inside Inc., a provider of an AI platform, announces that we conducted research to understand the status of AI utilization, AI in-house development, and AI human resource development to promote the digital transformation of the respondent’s companies they belong to. The respondents were 2,000 workers in the 20s to 50s nationwide in Japan.

• Of those currently using AI-equipped services and tools (hereafter, AI solutions), 37.2% are working on in-house development, and 24.3% are considering it. Therefore, about 60% are considering or working on in-house development.
• Of those who answered that they have implemented AI solutions in the past or are currently implementing AI solutions, approximately 30% responded that it is “difficult to continue using AI solutions due to lack of human resources with AI knowledge” as an issue after implementation.
• Among those currently implementing AI solutions, approximately 40% answered that they are “conducting training and human resource development on AI.”

Status of digital transformation (DX) and AI utilization

For the questions on the status of the utilization of digital transformation (DX) and AI, 65.7% of respondents said they were “not promoting the use of DX and AI,” and 17.8% said they are “promoting DX and utilizing AI” (*1), indicating that the rate of promotion of digital transformation and AI utilization is low. By industry, 36.0% of respondents in the finance and insurance industry are “promoting DX and utilizing AI,” which is about 18 points higher than the overall rate of 17.8%, suggesting that the use of AI is progressing.

In addition, there was a certain number of responses for “working on DX promotion, but not on AI utilization” (7.4%) and “feeling the need for both DX and AI, but have not started yet” (6.5%), which shows that although they are considering some actions, some have not yet started to use AI.

*1: This is the total number of the following selected responses: “AI is being used to create new value,” “aiming to create new value using AI,” “working on using AI, but only to improve operational efficiency.”

Status on in-house development of systems

For the questions on the status of in-house development of systems, the response “not working on in-house development” was the highest with 62.7% of the total. The other responses were “working on in-house development” at 11.5%, “outsourcing the development, but considering in-house development in the future” at 8.2%, and “not considering in-house development” at 13.8%. Overall, more than half responded that they are not currently working on in-house development, and it is clear that only a small number of companies are engaged in in-house development. 

When focusing on the class of the overall responses that are currently implementing AI solutions, in response to the same question, 37.2% of the respondents answered that they are “working on in-house development,” and 24.3% responded that they are “outsourcing the development, but considering in-house development in the future.” From these, it is clear that about 60% of the class currently implementing AI solutions has a favorable idea or policy towards in-house development. Therefore, it is likely that when AI is already being utilized, there are relatively many cases where in-house development of AI is already in progress or being considered.

In response to a question asking about the background for working on in-house development, the respondents raised benefits such as cost reduction and storing knowledge. (multiple choice)

Within these, for the question on the challenges of the in-house development in implementing AI, “there is no personnel with skills and knowledge in AI” came in highest choices and found that respondents have not been able to promote in-house development due to a lack of AI literacy within the company. (multiple choice)

Status for AI human resource development

Overall, 70.8% of the respondents have “no plans to develop AI human resources,” indicating that about 70% had no plans to train AI talent. On the other hand, while only about 3.2% of the respondents said that they have “sufficient AI human resources,” 17.9% of the respondents are positively considering training and development of AI human resources (*2).

Within the segment currently implementing AI solutions, the most common response was “conducting training related to AI and working on human resource development” for 36.8%, followed by “planning to conduct training but have not started yet, or are currently considering it” at 19%. Only 10.5% answered that there are “sufficient AI human resources,” and it can be seen that companies tend to utilize AI while working on human resource development. 

*2: Result of “Conducting training related to AI, and working on human resource development” and “planning to conduct training but have not started yet, or are currently considering it.”)

Summary

Among those implementing AI solutions, about 60% of them are considering in-house development or already working on it. They consider the in-house development of AI for cost reduction and for storing knowledge. However, it is difficult for those who are not utilizing AI to evaluate and select the appropriate AI due to the lack of knowledge caused by the lack of human resources within the company. On the other hand, nearly 70% of the total respondents have “no plans to educate employees about AI,” indicating that they are reluctant to invest in AI, including human resource training, for which cost-effectiveness is challenging to clarify.

In Japan, support for AI human resource development is rising. Some local governments are offering subsidies to support AI human resource development to increase productivity through AI. To create additional value with AI, it is possible that the speed of implementation will accelerate the adoption rate of AI by clearing the issues of cost and lack of human resources while studying the basic AI fundamentals to have a concrete picture of AI.

Utilization of “Learning Center” leading to in-house development of AI and AI human resource development

“Learning Center” provided by AI inside is a no-code service that supports business transformation by realizing in-house development of AI for various companies as the foundation for AI development and operations. Users can conduct additional training to improve the accuracy of the AI model and can also link it with other systems. With an intuitive and easy-to-use GUI, non-engineer can develop highly accurate AI models without coding and complete operations internally. As the foundation for AI development and operation, “Learning Center” contributes to the development of human resources with AI skills while accumulating knowledge on AI utilization in companies and organizations.

About “Learning Center”: https://learning-center.inside.ai/ (Japanese)

Overview of the research

• Research subject: AI inside Inc.
• Research Cooperation： Cross Marketing Inc.
• Survey area: Nationwide in Japan
• Survey target: Male and Female ages 20 – 59, who are working as full-time employees
• Survey period: October 15 (Fri) 2021 – October 17 (Sun) 2021 JST
• Survey method: Internet survey
• Number of valid responses：2,000 samples for this survey

About AI inside Inc. (https://inside.ai/en/)

With our mission, “to bring AI to every being in the world and contribute to a richer future society”, AI inside aims to realize a society in which AI has spread to every corner of people’s life. We provide a platform for anyone to utilize AI easily through our services: Workflows for using AI and applications including our DX Suite, Learning Center for everyone to build high precision AI without code, and AI inside Cube for running various AI.

Company Name: AI inside Inc. 
Location: 4th Floor, 3-8-12 Shibuya Shibuya-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 
Representative: Representative Director, President and CEO Taku Toguchi 
Founded: August 2015 
Business details: Development and provision of artificial intelligence and related information services 

*The service names appearing on this site are trademarks or registered trademarks of AI inside.