English 
Japanese 
A century-old trading company takes on the AI revolution. "Field-led" DX improves information search efficiency and cuts complex email creation time by a quarter.
Yokoyama Shokai Co., Ltd.
Issues before implementation
- A lot of time was spent searching for necessary information from the vast amount of accumulated business information, and creating announcements from scratch in response to rule revisions.
- I struggled to come up with the right wording and answer ideas for emails, which slowed down my response time, especially when replying to complex content.
- There were no employees in the company who were adept at using AI, and while there was a sense of crisis that "we might be left behind in business," employee training had been put off due to busy schedules.
Effects after implementation
- By using AI to integrate and summarize information, we have succeeded in reducing the number of steps required from search to creating circular documents by 3T compared to the previous 701TP.
- AI instantly drafts emails that convey complex situations, reducing the time it takes to create them to one-quarter of what it used to be and significantly reducing the psychological burden.
- Using NotebookLM and other tools, educational videos, tests, and even certificates are automatically generated. This has fostered a culture where even those who are not good at AI feel that "the door has been opened."
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Company Introduction
Yokoyama Shokai Co., Ltd. is a trading company specializing in machinery and equipment in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture, founded in 1921 and celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2021. Focusing on the wholesale of machinery for factories, the company also operates a wide range of businesses, including electronic component development and maintenance, and even supporting local companies in expanding overseas.
By leveraging our unique strength as a trading company that also manufactures, we have established a solid position as a partner supporting the manufacturing industry in the Hokuriku region.
Issues before introducing generative AI
The introduction of AI began with management's belief that "if we don't utilize AI, we will be left behind in business," but at the time, almost no employees were using it.
The General Affairs Department was struggling with the volume of information. "We had accumulated information, but it took time to retrieve the information we needed. We were overwhelmed with the preparation work of manually creating notification notices from scratch," he recalls. Sales support staff also struggled with the wording of customer emails, spending time checking them. Product specification research was also highly personalized, creating a high psychological hurdle for employees who were not comfortable using computers.
Benefits of using generative AI
The most notable feature is "information integration and search." Using AI, scattered past information is instantly summarized. Simply issuing the instruction, "Once you've created the regulations, please also create the text for circulation," completes the entire process, reducing the labor hours by 70%.
In sales support, AI instantly suggests drafts that highlight key points when creating complex emails, reducing the creation time by a quarter. Even members who were not good at using PCs have expressed positive feedback, saying, "The gateway to AI has opened for us."
Furthermore, they have also automated in-house training using NotebookLM. They have fed information security regulations into AI, and have created a system that generates explanatory videos, comprehension tests, and even issues certificates of completion. Until now, they had thought it was too much work and had put it off, but now they can create training content surprisingly smoothly.
Future outlook
Building on the success of some departments, we aim to make the convenience of AI available to all employees. Furthermore, rather than simply introducing it, we plan to integrate it with existing systems and information, building it into an organizational strength.
Starting with establishing rules for creating meeting minutes, we will continue to combine the knowledge we have cultivated over 100 years of history with the latest AI technology to accelerate our evolution as a trading company that continues to support and contribute to local manufacturing.
