Using Digital Technology for Society

As we enter the digital era in earnest, leading-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robots, the Internet of Things (IoT), the 5G next-generation communication standard, and Big Data analysis are now widely available. Considering how these technologies have been used, what strikes me is the strategy of driving out existing industries. Corporate activity has focused on replacing people (the labor force) with AI and other digital technologies to increase earnings by the effect of labor-saving. For example, in the United States, Uber Technologies and Amazon.com have eroded the existing taxi and retail industries respectively.

However, this business model simply replaces the existing industries with new ones. The overall economy does not grow neither have we seen a rise in employment or wages. On the contrary, with a widening income gap and a prevalent sense of unfairness, there is scant feeling that society has become more affluent.

Meanwhile, with the exception of the GAFA, the Big Four tech companies, most hi-tech startups cannot get out of the red. This phenomenon has been already pointed out in my previous column, but it has become increasingly clear that the digital business is definitely not profitable. In addition, the industry has not managed to win the positive support of society. The GAFA companies monopolize market shares and are highly profitable, but the view is that they are beginning to restrict competition because of their giant size, and governments in many countries are proposing regulations to rein them in.

The situation being what it is, another way of using technologies has begun to attract attention. It is the approach that uses digital technologies not to replace human beings, but to improve their skills.

In short, it is an attempt to propose new goods and services to resolve issues that have proven problematic in the past through the use of digital technologies. If such goods and services were available, I think people would be willing to pay a price that corresponds to the degree of problem-solving. Any corporation that develops such a business will enjoy the support of society and I do not doubt that the corporate value would increase.

Proposals for the Ricoh Group include (1) developing self-driving technologies by combining optical equipment and AI to reduce fatal accidents to zero, (2) building digital farms that use mechanized technologies and wide-area monitoring systems to withstand natural disasters, (3) supplying innovative and affordable housing by using 3D printers to produce construction materials, (4) reducing healthcare costs based on advanced medicine that extends the healthy life expectancy. Such proposals mobilize digital technologies and combine them with printers, optics and other existing technologies that have been cultivated at Ricoh. It is important to accelerate initiatives to find solutions to these social issues.