Over 40 Percent Of Japanese Companies Have No Plans To Make Use Of AI: Reuters Survey (image@Pixabay)
While nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their businesses, more than 40% have no plans to make use of the ground-breaking technological advances. As per survey conducted by Reuters, roughly 250 firms out of the 506 companies responded.
Over 24% of respondents said they have already introduced AI in their businesses and 35% are planning to do so, while the remaining 41% have no such plans. This shows the varying degrees of embracing the technological innovation in corporate Japan.
In a question regarding the objectives to adopt AI in a question allowing multiple answers, 60% of respondents said they were trying to cope with a shortage of workers, while 53% aimed to cut labour costs and 36% cited acceleration in research and development.
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Some of the obstacles in introducing AI was, “anxiety among employees over possible headcount reduction”. Lack of technological expertise, substantial capital expenditure and concern about reliability, are also among the reasons for not taking initiatives to introduce the cutting-edge technology.
As per the survey, over 15% of respondents have experienced cyberattacks over the past year and 9% had business partners that suffered cyberattacks during the same period. When asked about damage, 23% of those that suffered cyberattacks themselves or had business partners that were targets said business was temporarily halted, and 4% said they suffered information leak.
On the question of enhancing cybersecurity, 47% of respondents said they were outsourcing defence whereas 38% said they had in-house specialists.
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High-profile publishers, including Kadokawa, was subjected to cyberattacks in recent months. Kadokawa’s case prompted the government to work towards strengthening cybersecurity measures.
Notably, the survey also showed that half of firm support changing a law stipulating that spouses must use the same surname. Women take their husband’s in more than 9 out of 10 marriages, a practice opponents said takes away part of a woman’s identity and burdens them with the masses of paperwork needed to make the change.
The issue came under discussion after the Keidanren business lobby last month asked the government to allow married individuals to keep their surnames. In the survey, 50% of respondents said they supported such legislative change compared with 11% that opposed.
