An artificial intelligence company attracting attention in Japan!

An artificial intelligence company attracting attention in Japan!

What kind of companies are currently specializing in artificial intelligence in Japan? What kind of artificial intelligence are you using to develop your business? There are various opinions, but I would like to introduce a ranking article.

5 popular company rankings that drive the AI ​​business! [2019 edition]

Due to the recent AI (artificial intelligence) boom, various AI (artificial intelligence) related companies have been born in Japan, but not many companies have succeeded as a business yet. It can be said that it is difficult to commercialize using AI (artificial intelligence).

Meanwhile, companies that have succeeded in commercializing AI (artificial intelligence) are well-known, popular, and engineers long for them. So I'm wondering why these companies have succeeded in commercializing AI (artificial intelligence).

In addition, AI (artificial intelligence) is being used in various industries such as manufacturing factory automation, store marketing, and customer support in the financial industry. Therefore, I'm wondering what kind of companies in each industry have succeeded in commercializing AI (artificial intelligence).

Therefore, this time, about popular companies that have succeeded in commercialization using AI (artificial intelligence), what kind of industry is successful, the characteristics of the company, superiority over other companies, etc. Let's introduce it in the form of AI (artificial intelligence) popular company ranking.

[5th ​​place] DMP that specializes in FPGA conversion of AI (artificial intelligence)

The 5th most popular AI (artificial intelligence) company is DMP (Digital Media Professional).

DMP is the only company in Japan that develops and sells AI (artificial intelligence) FPGAs (IC chips for embedded devices).

Until now, AI (artificial intelligence) has been processed by a dedicated high-spec server because of its heavy processing, but nowadays, FPGAs for embedded devices optimized for AI (artificial intelligence) are beginning to appear.

However, this DMP has been attracting attention in recent years because it can contribute to the installation of advanced AI (artificial intelligence) in small devices such as smartphones and cameras by converting AI (artificial intelligence) to FPGA. is.

With the progress of commoditization of AI (artificial intelligence), an environment has been created in which anyone can easily program software that utilizes AI (artificial intelligence), but on the other hand, AI (artificial intelligence) has been converted to FPGA. In order to do so, not only AI (artificial intelligence) knowledge but also specialized knowledge and know-how of IC circuits are required, so only DMP has succeeded in commercialization in Japan.

For this reason, it is often used by major companies, and is used in a variety of devices such as Nintendo game consoles, Renesas Electronics OA equipment, and Sumitomo Mitsui Auto Service drive recorders.

[4th place] Morpho that applies the embedded technology cultivated in image processing for smartphones to AI (artificial intelligence)

Morpho is the 4th most popular AI (artificial intelligence) company.

Morpho is a research and development and licensing company for image processing and image recognition, founded in 2004.

Originally, a venture company that was good at image processing optimized for embedded systems and grew mainly by providing licenses to smartphones. Over the last few years, we have been focusing not only on image processing but also on AI (artificial intelligence) technologies such as deep learning, and have expanded our business to include frameworks for machine learning and AI image processing consulting.

The strength of this company is the optimization technology for embedded devices cultivated for smartphones, and we are good at reducing the weight of AI (artificial intelligence) programs, which are generally heavy processing, and installing them in smartphones and cars. In 2015, we announced a full-scale entry into image recognition for in-vehicle cameras in partnership with Denso, which attracted attention.

In 2016, we also announced a partnership with ITEC Hankyu Hanshin, and have begun developing new AI (artificial intelligence) to detect people in wheelchairs and white canes in fields such as stations and buildings. Business expansion is expected.

[3rd place] Parksha Technology, which specializes in corporate AI (artificial intelligence) engines

The third-largest company in the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) popular company ranking is Parksha Technology, which mainly provides AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms for corporations.

Parksha Technology is a venture company established in 2012, and is famous for having Yutaka Matsuo of the University of Tokyo, who is known as an authority on AI (artificial intelligence) research in Japan, as a technical advisor. The founder, Mr. Uenoyama, is also a graduate of Matsuo Laboratory and has a good reputation for AI (artificial intelligence) technology development capabilities.

Parksha Technology licenses the engine part of AI (artificial intelligence) and does not implement the application UI that can be seen by the user. Therefore, it is not yet well known in the world.

However, it has been introduced by major companies such as NTT DoCoMo and LINE, and sales have been steadily increasing since its establishment. There is also a business model of providing licenses, and we are continuing stable growth with high profit margins as a weapon.

The AI ​​(artificial intelligence) products we provide include text comprehension modules, dialogue modules, video analysis modules, prediction modules, and anomaly detection modules. We provide various types of AI (artificial intelligence) engines for corporations.

[No. 2] AI (artificial intelligence) pioneer ABEJA in the distribution and retail industry

AI (artificial intelligence) popular company The second largest company in the line king is ABEJA, which develops marketing services utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) in distribution and retail.

Although ABEJA was established in 2012 and is still a young company, it has steadily gained a track record in services that apply AI (artificial intelligence) centered on image recognition, such as counting the number of visitors and analyzing personal attributes, to marketing. It has actually been introduced in major distribution chains such as PARCO and ICI Ishii Sports.

ABEJA's strength is not only to visualize the information of customers visiting the store, but also to step into the customer's business process and work together with the customer to improve store sales. More than 500 stores of 100 companies have been introduced in Japan (as of November 2018). Due to its track record, it has been highly evaluated by major domestic and overseas companies.

For example, in Japan, we are expected to develop in the future, such as receiving investment from Daikin Industries and Topcon, and receiving investment from super-major companies such as NVIDIA and Google from overseas. Based on the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) technology cultivated in distribution and retail, we are also expanding into the manufacturing industry and infrastructure industry, and its growth strategy is also attracting attention.

[No. 1] The most successful AI (artificial intelligence) venture in Japan Preferred Networks

And the company with the highest AI (artificial intelligence) popularity ranking is Preferred Networks.

Although it is a venture that was just established in 2014, it has the best track record among domestic AI ventures, such as forming a business alliance with a major domestic company. In particular, its strength is the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in factory automation in the manufacturing industry, and it has gained high trust in its technological capabilities, such as collaborating with major manufacturing industries such as Toyota, Denso, and Panasonic.

As a strength that other companies do not have, it has its own high AI (artificial intelligence) technology, and the most famous is the framework for machine learning called "Chainer", which efficiently develops advanced AI (artificial intelligence). can. And "Chainer" is not only used by our company, but also widely provided as open source free of charge, contributing to the development of AI (artificial intelligence) in Japan.

Due to these efforts, it has gained high popularity from young AI (artificial intelligence) engineers in Japan.

Since Preferred Networks is unlisted, the sales scale is not disclosed, but it is said that the estimated corporate value is more than 200 billion yen, so it can be said that it is a company that is expected to grow further in the future.

This time, we introduced the popular companies that drive the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) business in a ranking format.

It is surprising that companies such as Preferred Networks and ABEJA, which have been established for less than 10 years, have succeeded in commercializing them using AI (artificial intelligence) technology, and have received a large amount of investment from major domestic and overseas companies. At the same time, we expect the high potential of AI (artificial intelligence) and the future.

The characteristics of the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) popular company ranking introduced this time are high technology, attitude to deeply enter into customer issues, steady introduction record, etc. as common items. With the recent AI (artificial intelligence) boom, many venture companies have been born, but the key to future success is not only high technology, but also AI that can enter the customer environment and solve problems firmly. The point will be whether we can develop and provide (artificial intelligence).

In addition, as represented by DMP, it is expected that AI (artificial intelligence) will be installed one after another in familiar devices such as smartphones and cars. When AI (artificial intelligence) that used to run on a server becomes commonplace to run on familiar devices, we will develop more consumer-oriented AI (artificial intelligence) that is not in the ranking of popular companies this time. There may be companies that are becoming more and more popular.

By that time, I'm looking forward to seeing how the AI ​​(artificial intelligence) popular company ranking explained this time will change.

And what to hide This site (AIZINE) is also run by an artificial intelligence development company (Otafuku Lab). I didn't mention it in this ranking because it shouldn't be miso in the foreground, but if you have a story like "Can you make this kind of AI (artificial intelligence)?", Please feel free to contact us. We will do our best to accommodate you!