Snowflake's DATA FOR BREAKFAST Event
On March 17, 2026, Snowflake Inc. hosted the "DATA FOR BREAKFAST" event at Bellesalle Tokyo Nihonbashi. This gathering aimed to shed light on the latest trends in data and AI, providing insights into Snowflake's recent updates and advanced customer use cases. The event underscored the crucial relationship between data strategies and AI integration in business.
Keynote Highlights
The event commenced with a keynote from Ryuro Ukita, the CEO of Snowflake Inc. He discussed how the utilization of generative AI is shifting from a traditional search phase to a consulting phase, indicating a rapid consideration for AI integration within companies. Ryuro emphasized that there can be no AI strategy without a solid data strategy, pointing out the significant challenges related to security and governance that accompany AI's wider implementation in organizations. He stressed, "To maximize the value of AI, it is vital to organize and accumulate appropriate data." He also shared practical examples of how Snowflake's interactive data agent, "Snowflake Intelligence," has been effectively employed within the company to enhance operational efficiency.
Following Ryuro's address, Christian Kleinerman, Executive Vice President of Product, took the stage. He highlighted the necessity for businesses to not only rely on general AI models but to integrate AI with their unique contexts and appropriate datasets. He also discussed eliminating data silos and the importance of having an integrated data platform that ensures reliability and governance. Kleinerman introduced new tools such as "Cortex Code," an AI coding agent that greatly simplifies data management for developers using natural language. He also announced the general availability of the transaction database "Snowflake Postgres" and discussed the acquisition of Observe, a move aimed at expanding Snowflake's capabilities as a comprehensive platform supporting businesses from AI adoption to application development.
During the event, Tanaka Sho, Lead Developer Advocate at Snowflake, conducted a live demonstration that deepened attendees' understanding of Snowflake Intelligence. This demonstration showcased how sales data can be extracted and visualized through natural language input, highlighting practical analysis capabilities for market expansion. Additionally, the integration of external data on AWS, coupled with the automatic generation of SQL code from natural language via Cortex Code, was showcased. Notably, the demonstration included a feature that masks personal information automatically using AI functions, all while maintaining strong security and governance, thus enabling the easy creation of AI agents in a fully managed environment.
Case Study Session: Nissin Foods Group
Kazuaki Ogō, head of the Data Science Office at Nissin Foods Group, presented insights into how they are leveraging Snowflake for data integration and AI agent implementation. The company has been actively supporting data analysis for commercial negotiations within its sales divisions and developing complex products such as the "Complete Food" in research and development. Ogō highlighted that, to translate AI’s value into sustained competitive advantage, capitalizing on unstructured data and verbalizing tacit knowledge and operational insights are critical. This progressive approach aims to establish a data-driven organization through the synergy of data and AI strategies.
Joint Panel Discussion
A panel featuring representatives from Mitsubishi Electric, AWS, and Snowflake discussed the frontiers of AI and data utilization for business transformation. Mitsubishi Electric showcased the development of a comprehensive data utilization platform, "Serendie," built around Snowflake and AWS. They provided practical examples of AI applications such as monitoring the operational status of discharge machining equipment to reduce downtime and quickly extracting necessary knowledge from vast design documents using AI. Takahisa Mizuguchi, head of the Platform Design and Development Department at the DX Innovation Center, shared plans for the future, stating, "We aim to organize data catalogs and metadata to connect with each agent, creating a platform that facilitates integrated usage across the company," thus emphasizing the ambition to foster advanced AI integration across multiple agents.
About Snowflake
As a platform tailored for the AI era, Snowflake assists companies in achieving faster innovation and extracting more value from data. Over 13,300 clients, including hundreds of the world's largest companies, utilize Snowflake’s AI data cloud to engage in data and application development, as well as AI deployment and sharing. Snowflake empowers data and AI to become transformative forces for everyone. For more information, visit snowflake.com/ja (NYSE: SNOW).