Today, the technological revolution started by AI and LLMs is impacting the world in massive ways. Here at Mercari, we value the significance of AI’s potential and are not only implementing it in our product but exploring various ways of leveraging it to increase productivity at work. Our relationship with AI isn’t new, either. AI has been a part of Mercari’s history since the rise of deep learning, during which we were one of the first to implement AI into our product.

From here on forward, we aim to leverage AI strategically and become a company of AI-led growth. Over the next few months, we will be releasing articles centered around Mercari’s current progress and future vision around implementing AI, as told by the key people driving AI initiatives at the company.

In this article, we ask Mercari’s Executive Officer, Senior Vice President of Japan Region, and Chief Executive Officer of Marketplace Masato Yamamoto (@mark), Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Japan Region Shunya Kimura (@kimuras), and Gomi Hayakawa (@gomichan), who joined Mercari this July and is in charge of promoting generative AI across the company, about why Mercari positions AI as the most important thing for its business.

The use of AI strengthens our value proposition

—Mercari’s implementation of AI into our product isn’t new. Could you remind us of the intention behind the importance we place on leveraging AI?

@kimuras: While leveraging AI to boost productivity is a trending topic today, at Mercari we believe it’s more important to focus on enhancing user experience. Maximizing every employee’s AI literacy is just a step that is needed to achieve that ultimate goal. I personally think that from a user perspective, what’s important is not that the product uses AI, but that their experience has improved.

I often talk about this outside of the company as well, but around 2015 to 2016, Mercari placed an immense focus on UI/UX improvements. We listened to user feedback and went through many rounds of trial and error, and in 2017 we decided to go full throttle on incorporating AI to improve user experience even further. As one can imagine, the biggest bottleneck of a marketplace service for users is the hassle of listing items. We thought we should leverage AI to solve that problem.

This September, we released a new feature called AI Listing Support that automatically fills out item information after a user takes a photo of their item and selects an item category. Making listing easy is a part of our roots and our core values. We have continued to develop features with a focus on using AI image recognition to complete item information, starting from our AI Listing feature released back in 2018. It’s important not only to be able to buy things easily but to be able to sell things easily, and I believe that the use of AI strengthens our value proposition.

Around the time we were developing AI Listing (2016–2017), deep learning was a highly challenging technology, and so there were very few cases of it being used in high-traffic consumer services. Despite this, Mercari became one of the first to implement it into our product, and we were able to roll it out to all of our users. Thinking back even now, that was an extremely bold move. At the time we honestly weren’t sure if it would go well, but we released the feature without fear. I think the actions we took back then are representative of our history and culture of taking risks and going bold.

After that, in 2017, we began using AI in a variety of areas, from our machine learning-based Content Moderation System to our recommendation feature. I think the fact that we were able to leverage deep learning and various machine learning technologies to provide these features for our users represents the value that we were able to offer during that time period.

Today, LLMs are popular throughout the world, and even in society the general mindset is that now is the time to take advantage of AI technology. But with few use cases I think many companies are at a loss as to how to provide such services to consumers. 

Similar to when we released AI Listing using deep learning technology, providing consumer-facing services using LLMs today poses various risks, but the potential of what it can achieve is vastly greater. LLMs are still in an experimental phase and are often used to solve relatively small problems, but this is far from the full potential of what they can achieve. I believe this technology can change our entire social structure and way of working.

Just as the rise of deep learning was the golden opportunity for us to develop AI Listing, now is precisely the golden opportunity for us to provide value to our users, and I would like Mercari to always continue being a pioneer for society. I personally take pride in our ability to proactively take on new technologies and provide value to our users, and this is a new technology that is extremely worth exploring. I believe that by creating a variety of use cases we can light the way for others and give back to society.

@mark: I completely agree with Shunya (@kimuras). We are not aiming to become an “AI company” but rather a tech company that is competitive on the global stage. I believe that AI unleashes many new possibilities and that we should be a company that can turn those possibilities into practical use cases and provide them to society. White using AI isn’t the goal, we have to start by learning to use it in order to determine how it can be most effectively put to use.

We went through this exact same process when developing Mercoin, asking ourselves what the purpose of this service would be and what positive outcomes the use of Bitcoin would bring about. In order to achieve new, practical uses for technology that everyone in the world can take advantage of, we considered it important to focus on first trying it and making it available to people. How otherwise can we quickly innovate and create uses for technology that can change the world?

We’ve incorporated mastering AI into our objectives and key results (OKRs) across the company and are working toward them with an eye on the goals and next steps after we’ve achieved them.

—What is the vision for these goals and next steps?

@mark: I think it’s ultimately to create a state in which the technology is a seamless part of our service and our users simply enjoy an incredibly convenient experience without even being conscious of the fact that AI made it possible.

@kimuras: We constantly ensure that we explore all avenues possible to make our services as convenient as they can be. AI is one important avenue, but it’s only one part within the bigger picture. That said, it’s definitely played a tremendous role in raising the bar for convenience in both our app and our work. We’ve used AI to make improvements around not only our listing feature, but customer support and logistics, which we handle in-house.

—How does Mercari Group plan to invest in the use of AI moving forward?

@kimuras: As @mark mentioned earlier, we need all of our employees to understand the potential that AI holds before we can create a good service that uses AI to meet the needs of users. To be completely frank, we struggled with this same issue even before the time of LLMs, back when deep learning was becoming popular. Deep learning and all AI-related technology in general, from creating models to inference, is highly technologically challenging. It consumes time and costs, so it was difficult to conduct a proof of concept led by non-engineers. But in the case of LLMs, software with user interfaces such as ChatGPT exist, and anyone can learn how to use it for their work right away.

We have been holding AI-themed hackathons regularly and interest toward AI within the company is higher than ever today, but what’s important is how we then apply it to our everyday work. That’s why @gomichan’s mission to promote AI within the company is so important.

Influencing people from within to powerfully drive the utilization of AI

—@gomichan, could you tell us about your mission?

@gomichan: I’m often asked about the reason I joined Mercari, and it’s because what I’m interested in right now is witnessing firsthand the moment when LLMs are adopted by many people. What I want to see most is the moment non-engineers find that they can achieve things they couldn’t do before thanks to AI. Personally, I’ve always loved playing games and thought of becoming a game developer when I grew up, but upon entering university I founded my first company and decided to give up on the gaming industry to focus on my brand instead. But then, the first time I used generative AI, I was swept by the hope that with the help of this technology even I could learn to develop a game and was completely blown away. Even as a non-engineer, I’m now slowly getting closer to being able to create my own game. This technology is truly incredible.

The same is true for not just game development but a wide range of work, and I believe that if non-engineers can take full advantage of AI, we can create a vastly different future. Although I’m not an engineer myself, I want to help lots of members at Mercari utilize AI and witness how it changes their work. I think of my mission as supporting people in creating the future that AI can help bring about.

—And you believe that Mercari is the place to make that happen?

@gomichan: Yes. I believe we can achieve a lot and really make an impact at a company of 2,000 employees. If everyone used AI to save an hour of time at work alone, that’s 2,000 hours saved. And if a company of this scale starts doing something, people from all corners will take interest. Trying new things is also a part of Mercari’s culture, which makes it easy for me to do my job of promoting generative AI throughout the company.

@kimuras: I think it’s extremely effective to demonstrate visually how AI can be used. Although nowadays there is clearly a general interest toward AI, the study sessions that @gomichan has been holding introduce various approaches to using AI, and it has definitely increased the number of interested people. There was a time when we tried to increase awareness around AI, but it was hard for people to see the connection to their own work, and we struggled to keep the momentum going.

@gomichan: I had no idea (laughs).

@kimuras: The momentum is strong this time, though! Lots of people are interested in the AI-themed hackathons, and having @gomichan join to promote AI while interest levels are high was major. Now we can leverage all the efforts and initiatives we’ve built up until now.

@mark: When we were in the hiring process with @gomichan, I could already envision clearly her role and contributions in the company. If we are to get more people to discover practical applications for AI and try using it, we absolutely need someone who can influence people in the company. While promoting our initiatives around AI externally is important, there is nothing to promote if we don’t create those initiatives within the company first.

I want to create a positive cycle in which promoting AI within the company builds speed and momentum for our initiatives around AI, and promoting those initiatives outside the company in turn strengthens momentum within the company. We’ve really had @gomichan hit the ground running (laughs).

@gomichan: No problems here! In the conversations I’ve had with @kimuras and @mark after joining the company, I could really feel their passion toward AI. In fact, AI has been such a significant part of Mercari’s history, and it would be such a shame if we were to get stuck here. I’m grateful for foundation that everyone at Mercari has built up until now and will do my best to shape it into something greater.

I also feel that many members at Mercari are very enthusiastic about AI, and I want to create the opportunity for them to go out and unleash their potential. After seeing Mercari from the inside, I really feel that if simply given the right opportunity, lots of people would become interested in what AI can offer. Passion really spreads in this company.

@kimuras: I feel that @gomichan has filled the missing piece of the puzzle. She isn’t an engineer, she deeply understands the potential of AI, and she is also proactive to gather information and build networks. On top of that, she’s great at giving presentations and has a strong sense of ownership, and I think the adoption of AI within the company has sped up exponentially thanks to her.

@gomichan: Words like those really motivate me to do the best job possible in this role. The phase we’re in right now is one of creating momentum and encouraging action among members. The next phase would be one in which members take action on their own. It’s my job to light the fire so that we can get there.

To survive the AI era, we must change the way we think

—What is the biggest obstacle in promoting the use of AI within the company, as you see it?

@mark: I think the most important thing when it comes to building products and managing organizations in this age of AI is to change the way we think. It’s absolutely vital that we unlearn our old ways. What this new era requires of us is to discover a completely different method of growth that is nothing like how we operated using the technology prior to the age of AI. If we cling to old ways, the knowledge and experience that we’ve built up will instead become our blind spots. I’d like for us to experience as many “aha moments” as possible.

That’s why I thought it was so important to show a demo video presenting a future in which our product leverages AI technology at our roadmap presentation at the beginning of the quarter. I posed quite a tall ask to the video creator when I requested the video present a world where this technology is the norm (laughs). But it’s because I think it’s important to present our goal in a way that people can visualize. I wanted to show people that the use of AI would open up a new path in a way that is easy to understand.

@gomichan: The demo video at the roadmap presentation changed the mood in the company and helped everyone realize that we’re really doing this.

@mark: As expected, we received reactions like “We can’t accomplish this in a year,” but we won’t be able to accomplish it at all if we don’t try. The tech companies of the world tend to show videos that present use cases when making announcements. Some products or services people may wonder if anyone will actually use, but we have to show people that we’re serious about bringing that vision to life. I think it’s more important than anything that as leaders we not only believe the most strongly in the future and the new path that we are carving out, but show it to people in a way that they can envision.

@kimuras: While it’s great that we were able to cultivate a shared vision, now and into the future we must continue to consider how to use this vision and generate action.

I strongly believe that no matter how convenient a piece of technology is, people will not use it unless it can be incorporated into their work. If it’s a part of their work, they will learn and remember how to use it and feel motivated to make further improvements. At Mercari, many non-engineering members know how to use SQL because it’s a part of their work. That’s why I believe we need to not only provide the vision but incorporate AI into our members’ work sooner than any other company.

I think that not taking advantage of LLMs to improve our workflows and our product would put us behind the technological development of the world and is simply not an option.

@gomichan: I completely agree. When people started using smartphones in place of computers and feature phones, trends throughout the world changed in an instant. I believe that Mercari was able to achieve such growth because it captured the right moment and took on a bold challenge. But I think we are currently at a crossroad that will determine whether Mercari can continue onto the next stage. To put it bluntly, there is the possibility that we could be eliminated. I have personally been an active Mercari user since my teenage years, and I don’t want this company to get left behind.

@kimuras: The key is whether we’re able to unlearn the old and accept the new in the era that is to come. Companies that fail to unlearn their old ways face the danger of being left behind. The trends in the needs and demands of society will change greatly, and it won’t be an easy feat to adapt to these changes, but at the same time humans will be able to spend time focusing on tasks that are meant for us.

It’s major that we will be able to spend our time in the places we should be investing in the most. I think our most important mission is to correctly identify where those places are, update our vision, and invest in them moving forward.  We must greatly update even our company culture to make that happen.