LY Corporation and OpenAI Partnership

LY Corporation is integrating OpenAI's API and GPT-4o into its ecosystem to enhance user experiences for over 200 million global users and streamline internal operations. This partnership is projected to drive ‰110B yen (approximately $715M USD) in annual sales growth and ‰10B yen ($65M USD) in annual productivity improvements.

AI Integration in Consumer Services

LY Corporation has deployed generative AI across its primary platforms to provide personalized, high-quality user experiences. Key implementations include:

  • LINE AI Assistant: A conversational tool powered by GPT-4o that allows users to access AI capabilities directly within the LINE messaging app.
  • Yahoo! JAPAN Search: This service utilizes GPT-4 and GPT-4o to generate travel plans and summarize product and restaurant reviews, facilitating faster user decision-making.

LY Corporation selected the GPT-4 series based on its high accuracy in text generation and summarization, as well as the ease of integrating internal data.

Internal Productivity and SeekAI

To improve operational efficiency, LY Corporation developed SeekAI, an in-house productivity tool powered by OpenAI's API. Launched company-wide in July 2024, SeekAI uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to reference internal workspaces and documentation databases, reducing the time required for employee inquiries and verifications.

Internal AI deployment has resulted in an estimated reduction of 700,000 to 800,000 annual working hours.

Data Safety and Governance Framework

LY Corporation established a robust AI infrastructure emphasizing ethics, governance, and employee education. To ensure data security when using OpenAI's models, the company verified three specific safety standards:

  1. Zero Data Retention: OpenAI does not retain data input by employees into ChatGPT.
  2. No Model Training: Input and output data are not used to train or enhance AI models.
  3. No Secondary Use: OpenAI guarantees that data is not repurposed or shared with third parties.

Strategic Priorities and Scale

As of December 2024, LY Corporation has developed 32 AI-driven use cases. The company's AI strategy focuses on three primary pillars:

  • Modernizing Flagship Services: Adapting LINE Messenger and Yahoo! JAPAN for AI while maintaining intuitive user experiences.
  • Scaling Multimedia Generation: Expanding the development of image and video generation using methods similar to text generators.
  • Ensuring Transparency: Maintaining clear communication with users regarding the role of AI in service delivery to preserve trust.

LY Corporation currently serves as a beta tester for new OpenAI products, leveraging its position as one of OpenAI's most active API users.

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