The Rakuten Group, with 1.8 billion members globally, is leveraging OpenAI's API to transform how it processes and acts on customer data across its 70+ online services. The Japanese conglomerate, which operates in e-commerce, fintech, and communications, views its data assets as critical corporate resources. Yusuke Kaji, General Manager of AI for Business at Rakuten, emphasizes that AI models are essential for amplifying the impact of their data.

Rakuten's AI initiatives include using Code Interpreter and RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) to extract value from complex unstructured data. These tools have dramatically improved customer service response times by automatically processing internal knowledge bases. The company is also developing review summarization features to help users navigate product feedback more efficiently, and providing merchants with actionable market insights derived from Rakuten's extensive data resources.

Security and trust remain paramount as Rakuten explores new AI applications. After thorough due diligence, the company partnered with OpenAI, prioritizing privacy protections and establishing robust guardrails. Looking forward, Rakuten sees potential in real-time voice and vision capabilities for meeting transcription and multilingual translation, as well as more conversational AI experiences that capture richer user preference data. For Rakuten, AI represents not just technological advancement but a fundamental shift in how they empower businesses and create value for users.