#Japan #Tokyo #Yamaboshi #DATAFLUCT #Airlake

Enhancing Sales Strategy through AI

In a bid to tackle the rising challenges of labor shortages and escalating costs in the wholesale sector, DATAFLUCT, a leading data business partner based in Shibuya, Tokyo, has partnered with Yamaboshi, a major player in the Japanese confectionery wholesale market. The collaboration focuses on the implementation of an AI agent designed specifically to support Yamaboshi's 300 sales representatives.

This initiative, which has embarked on a pilot test, aims to transition sales staff away from routine tasks and allow them to concentrate on providing value-added, human-centered proposals that technology alone cannot replicate. The operational rollout of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) version is scheduled to begin in March 2026, with a company-wide deployment anticipated by spring 2027. The overarching goal is to expedite the achievement of Yamaboshi's ambitious mid-term sales target of ¥420 billion.

Background and Objective

As Japan's confectionery wholesale sector grapples with market contraction and soaring costs, Yamaboshi has set an aggressive growth goal of ¥420 billion in revenue by 2027. The deployment of the sales AI agent is not merely about automating tasks; it’s about harnessing AI to better organize collective knowledge and significantly enhance the quality of proposals while also transforming the company into a more adaptable entity capable of responding to industry changes.

The AI agent will take over various peripheral tasks that have historically consumed sales representatives' time. This includes searching vast product databases, drafting proposal documents, gathering and summarizing market and competitive intelligence, and analyzing complex sales data. By doing so, the sales team will be freed from repetitive work, allowing them to deepen customer relationships and focus on personalized proposals that are rooted in genuine human interaction.

Overview of the Sales Support AI Agent

This pilot project utilizes DATAFLUCT’s Airlake BI Agent, an automated AI tool designed to facilitate sales activities. The goals of this initiative include:

1. Conversational Search: The AI will allow sales staff to perform searches in natural language and automate both analysis and graph creation. For instance, a request like, "Show me the monthly sales trend for snacks from April to October 2024" will prompt the AI to analyze data and generate the appropriate graph instantly, significantly speeding up decision-making processes.

2. Information Extraction Function: To democratize knowledge and prevent reliance on specific individuals, the AI will retrieve necessary information from a vast internal database, presenting it in a chat format. The AI will immediately link to the foundation slides and actual screens to facilitate transparency in the data extraction process. This functionality aims to eliminate obstacles faced by newer employees who struggle to find information, helping standardize proposal quality across the organization.

3. Corporate Analysis by AI: The AI will multifacetedly analyze sales performance and client data to generate insights from both numerical and textual data. This facilitates a shift where sales representatives can abandon time-consuming analysis tasks and instead devote themselves to crafting proposals tailored to customer needs.

Future Developments

Starting from March 2026, the initial implementation will cover select areas, ultimately aiming for a fully functional "Sales 1+1" model involving all 300 sales representatives by spring 2027. This strategy seeks to standardize high-level proposal quality across the board, irrespective of individual experience.

Plans for further development include features that enable instantaneous cross-referencing of complex conditions from the extensive product database, like querying, "What new products are likely to sell in spring for customer A?" Additionally, the integration of diverse datasets beyond text information is in the pipeline. The aim is to allow AI to systematically organize and accumulate previously informal knowledge and successful patterns, thereby evolving the organization into one capable of delivering solutions directly addressing client challenges.

Insights from Yamaboshi Executives

Enaida, the DX Strategy Department Head at Yamaboshi, emphasizes that this project represents far more than mere efficiency enhancements; it's about unleashing employee potential. By converting vast data into actionable insights, sales representatives can concentrate on crafting heartfelt proposals. With the introduction of the "Sales 1+1" framework, there’s optimism about setting a new standard in the confectionery wholesale industry that transcends experience levels.

Shinmei, the Department Manager of DX Strategy, commented on the ongoing evaluations with sales staff, expressing astonishment at how quickly the AI agent completes previously time-consuming data aggregation and report generation tasks. The potential for this technology to free up time for meaningful interactions with clients and engaging in effective product showcasing is met with great anticipation.

About Airlake BI Agent

The Airlake BI Agent simplifies data extraction, visualization, and analysis through conversational commands. Queries like, "What are this month's sales?" or "Which products are selling well?" lead to automatic generation of graphs and findings. Advanced technologies ensure minimal risk of errors during data extraction, offering reliable and high-quality results.

About DATAFLUCT

With a vision centered on turning data into valuable business assets, DATAFLUCT seeks to address societal challenges by deriving insights from previously untapped data. Specializing in multi-modal data utilization, the firm offers streamlined solutions for data collection, processing, and analysis. Founded in January 2019 with recognition from JAXA Ventures, DATAFLUCT aims to empower organizations to make sustainable decisions through effective data use. Visit DATAFLUCT's website for more information.