This year marks the 12th anniversary since Mercari launched its service. What began as a startup has grown into a major tech company. Today, Mercari finds itself at a turning point. At the FY2026.6 Group Vision presentation, CEO Shintaro Yamada declared a bold new direction: not only continuing our “Back to Startup” mindset but adding a powerful new theme—“AI-Native.”

By fundamentally transforming both our organization and products through AI, we are entering a period of profound change across the entire Group.

Let’s dive into the AI strategy that Mercari unveiled during its business strategy presentation and FY2025.6 Q4 financial results presentation.

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Group Direction: Shintaro Yamada, Representative Executive Officer and CEO (@suadd)

Last fiscal year, under the theme “Back to Startup,” Mercari focused heavily on transforming both its product and organization.

As a result of strong efforts to integrate AI into the user experience and improve our core products, we realized strong growth across Mercari Group, achieving increased profits across all three business domains: Marketplace, Fintech, and US. The company also posted record profits Group-wide.

On the organizational front, we introduced the new value Move Fast, implemented a hybrid workstyle to help maximize the potential of both individuals and the organization, and launched a company-wide AI Task Force with over 100 members. It was a year of major transformation.

“I want to thank everyone for making this major shift happen,” said @suadd. “That said, we still haven’t achieved a level of change we can truly call a transformation.”

He emphasized that the “Back to Startup” mindset must continue—and evolve.

With the rapid advancement of AI technologies reshaping the business landscape, Yamada announced that for this year, the theme “AI-Native” would be added to the existing theme of Back to Startup.

This means that by the end of December, Mercari is committed to completely rearchitecting its products, ways of working, and organizational structure to leverage the evolution of AI and achieve unprecedented results.

@suadd noted that falling behind in AI adoption risks losing our competitive edge. At the same time, individuals will be expected to create new forms of value that can’t be measured by traditional performance evaluation criteria. For those willing to grow and adapt, this represents a tremendous opportunity to enhance the value they can provide.

In fact, 95% of Mercari employees are already using AI tools, and 70% of code generated for product development involves AI. The result? A 64% year-over-year increase in output per engineer, with a dramatic boost in productivity and speed.

He closed with a powerful call to action:

“Everything is changing with AI. We can’t just continue business as usual. Think how you can go bold. Move fast and take on challenges—even if you fail, learn from it. Shift your mindset, embrace the chaos, and create entirely new value for our users.”

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AI Direction: Shunya Kimura, CTO (@kimuras)

Following @suadd, CTO Shunya Kimura introduced the specifics of Mercari’s AI strategy, breaking it down into two major areas.

Redefining the User Experience

“Rather than passively reacting to how AI will impact our lives and business, we must proactively define that impact ourselves,” @kimuras began. He described how AI is evolving beyond being just a tool into something that interfaces with all human decision-making and behavior.

He posed the question: “What does the ideal user experience look like in the AI era?” He painted a vision of a world where anyone can list or purchase on Mercari with zero friction.

By using AI to power entirely new listing experiences, interactive item discovery, and enhanced safety and security, we can lower the barrier to entry and deliver a UX where anyone can use Mercari effortlessly. This is the future user experience Mercari is striving for.

Redefining Our Workstyles

Next, @kimuras spoke about how AI is transforming how employees work. By shifting from manual operations to AI-supported workflows, Mercari will enable employees to focus on decision-making and creative tasks.

So, what exactly will change by leveraging AI?

“From business planning and specifications to data analysis and communication, we’re redesigning everything with AI at the core to dramatically improve work efficiency. Even the way we run meetings will evolve—from ‘decide first, then build’ to ‘co-create, test, and decide together in real time.’”

He emphasized that this change isn’t just for engineers or product managers. For example, customer support agents may begin contributing ideas for new features, and AI will handle routine checks in security and operations. This will result in a highly productive organization that can focus on decision-making and creative tasks, enabling every member to make direct contributions to the product.

“We’re moving toward an exciting future,” said @kimuras, “where anyone can help build our services, and AI becomes deeply integrated into our daily work—making ‘Move Fast’ our new normal.”

Launch of the AI Task Force

But how can a large organization keep pace with rapid AI innovation?

To address this, Kimura introduced the AI Task Force—a cross-functional initiative of around 100 people leading the adoption of AI across the Group.

The AI Task Force was launched to drive the Group’s AI-Native transformation. Its mission: to rebuild the user experience with AI at its core to evolve the platform into one that anyone can use intuitively, safely, and securely.

More details—including behind-the-scenes stories, concrete use cases, and interviews with task force members—will be shared on Mercan soon.

@kimuras ended with a memorable phrase:

AI will unleash us from the bottlenecks and resource limitations that previously held us back. The word comes directly from Mercari’s mission: “Circulate all forms of value to unleash the potential in all people.”

@kimuras encouraged everyone:

“You don’t have to be perfect—just take the first step. That’s where learning and change begin.”

Final Thoughts

What you’ve read here is just the beginning of Mercari’s bold AI strategy. At Mercan, we’ll continue sharing updates through behind-the-scenes project stories and interviews with the key people driving this transformation.

Stay tuned as we bring you closer to the future Mercari is building.