Company Introduction

Sunparks Co., Ltd. is a dispensing pharmacy with six stores in Saitama Prefecture, and will celebrate its 18th year in business in 2025. The company also operates stores specializing in home medical care, playing a part in local medical care, and is expanding its business in collaboration with partner companies such as Hana Co., Ltd., Azbil Co., Ltd., and Sunshine 21 Co., Ltd.

There are 55 employees, many of whom are relatively young, and among them, there are many male pharmacists. At each store, a team including part-time staff provides careful medication instructions to each patient, and at the home pharmacies, they visit patients' homes based on doctor's instructions, meeting a variety of medical needs.

Issues before introducing generative AI

Before introducing generative AI, there was little knowledge of AI tools within the company, and there was a great deal of anxiety about not knowing what it could do. In fact, many employees had never even used ChatGPT due to the complicated registration process, making it difficult to imagine the benefits of introducing it. In particular, tasks that took a long time to search for information and documents, and tasks outside of the company's expertise, such as checking contracts, became personalized, placing a burden on the field. The introduction of AI began at the suggestion of the president, but there were many doubts as to whether it could really be used in a dispensing pharmacy, and the entire company started out feeling its way around.

Effects after training using generative AI

The introduction of generative AI has significantly improved work efficiency. One particularly significant change was the process of checking contracts, which previously took over an hour but now takes just 10 minutes. Summarizing text and checking for typos have also been automated, reducing the burden of administrative work. Furthermore, by incorporating government documents related to parental leave and paid leave into the AI, a system has been put in place that allows the necessary information to be searched and output instantly.

Furthermore, we use NotebookLM to centrally manage PDFs and internal documents. Searching and summarizing information is now possible in chat format, allowing us to access information more efficiently than with traditional folder management.

Generative AI can also be used for in-house recreational activities. For example, at events, AI was used to plan mini-games and write scripts for prize draws, reducing the time required to create scripts from 10 minutes to 1 minute, reducing the burden of event preparation.

Future outlook

In the future, we plan to increase the amount of data stored in the existing chatbot and NotebookLM, further improving searchability and practicality.

Currently, staff at some stores have begun to voluntarily use AI tools, and it is important to spread this movement throughout the company. By visualizing specific examples of staff using generative AI and sharing them among stores, we aim to raise the level of AI literacy and utilization throughout the company.

Ultimately, the company aims to foster a culture in which all employees "ask AI when they have a problem" and establish a cycle of continuous improvement in pharmacy operations.