• SoftBank Group, including its telco division SoftBank Corp, is on a mission to dominate the enterprise AI services market in Japan
• It has launched a B2B joint venture with OpenAI
• Its Gen-AX subsidiary has launched an ‘AI operator’ for contact centres, dubbed X-Ghost

SoftBank Group, the giant Japanese conglomerate that counts major Japanese telco SoftBank Corp. and chip developer Arm among its portfolio of companies, has taken two significant steps towards its goal of dominating Japan’s enterprise AI services sector. 

It has formed a joint venture (JV) with generative AI (GenAI) giant OpenAI, called SB OAI, to exclusively offer Crystal intelligence – a packaged combination of OpenAI’s applications with “tailored implementation and system integration services” underpinned by SoftBank Corp – to enterprise users in Japan starting in 2026. 

The aim of the JV is to “transform the corporate management and operational practices of Japan’s enterprises with AI,” noted SoftBank Group, a major investor in OpenAI, in this announcement.  

To fine-tune the offering, gain experience of its capabilities and ‘drink its own champagne’, SoftBank Corp. “will adopt and deploy [Crystal intelligence] as the first user, validating its effectiveness in product development and business transformation through advanced AI technologies. The insights and operational expertise gained through these initiatives will be accumulated and shared progressively with other enterprises via SB OAI Japan,” noted SoftBank Group, which is reportedly set to invest $3bn on rolling out Crystal intelligence across the conglomerate’s operations. 

The JV will also build on the experience that SoftBank Group has gained from being a widespread user of OpenAI’s tools. “By leveraging OpenAI’s technology, the [company] has already created approximately 2.5 million custom GPTs (ChatGPTs that can be customised for specific tasks or use cases) for internal use, and is now working to establish a foundation for Crystal intelligence.

SoftBank Group’s president, CEO and figurehead, Masayoshi Son, stated: “This marks the start of a new era of innovation that will transform how people work and businesses are managed. With the launch of SB OAI Japan, AI agents will understand our goals and collaborate with each other to autonomously carry out tasks we want them to perform. Together with OpenAI, we’re driving the AI revolution to the next stage.”

Separately, SoftBank Corp. subsidiary Gen-AX, a developer of AI-enabled software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, has officially launched X-Ghost, an autonomous AI voice response solution for contact centres. 

Gen-AX describes X-Ghost as an “AI operator” that uses AI to think autonomously and respond to customers through natural voice dialogue that is of better quality and accuracy than legacy systems thanks to a “voice dialogue AI engine that enables 24/7 support” and “monitors speech and system behaviour in real time, and provides risk assessment and guardrail control functions to ensure safe and reliable dialogue”. 

According to Gen-AX, the “cutting-edge, speech-to-speech model solves the problems of information loss, latency and error propagation that are inherent in conventional methods that combine speech recognition, language processing and speech synthesis. The AI’s autonomous thinking allows for natural, human-like conversations.”

Due to technology advances and a workforce shortage in Japan, Gen-AX expects the country’s market for speech-recognition technology and applications to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9% during the period from April 2023 to March 2029, with a projected market value of more than 30bn yen ($194m) expected during the fiscal year 2028 (April 2028 to March 2029). 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV