Mr. Akihiko Ishikawa, Representative Director, President, and CEO of Aidemy Inc.
Machine learning and AI are expected to be used in a variety of situations, such as in companies and at research sites. However, the barriers to learning about machine learning and mastering AI remain high at individual sites. This is an interview with Mr. Akihiko Ishikawa, the Representative Director, President, and CEO of Aidemy Inc., a startup from the University of Tokyo that is tackling this issue.
Representative Director, President, and CEO of Aidemy Inc.
―What kind of business does Aidemy Inc. do?
We help companies to develop human resources for a digital transformation (DX) focused on AI and to enhance basic literacy related to green transformation (GX) (*1), which has been drawing attention recently.
Our main service is Aidemy Business, a digital human resources development platform. It provides more than 145 pieces of content covering a variety of digital themes, such as cloud, IoT, and AI. Customers who sign a contract can use them as much as they like, so they can learn freely in accordance with their interests.
A cumulative total of more than 350 corporations, including 70% of Japanese Fortune Global 500 (2) companies, have used our service; it has the greatest number of learners among online DX human resources services for corporations (3).
―Why did you decide to start this business?
I graduated from the Department of Urban Engineering in the School of Engineering in 2017, where I joined water engineering lab and conducted research by using machine learning to optimize the process of controlling water treatment.
What I realized then was the big hurdle of learning machine learning. My professors, seniors, and colleagues in the lab were experts on water, but not on machine learning or programming. I expected that this kind of situation would happen in all kinds of research fields in the future.
―Why did you choose to offer e-learning services?
I have always been interested in teaching and had wanted to become a schoolteacher since I was a junior high school student. I started Aidemy by combining both my interests in teaching and forming a business.
I got interested in business maybe because of my experience as a child Kabuki actor working in the world of traditional values. As a reaction to the experience, I have a strong desire to take on new challenges. Before I knew it, I had started my own business as a college student have been running one ever since.
―What features does Aidemy Business have?
Although the service is for human resources development, we aim to ensure that the developed human resources will help achieve the success of actual projects. We are not just eager to teach, but think that results can only be achieved when the human resources are utilized effectively.
―How can they be utilized?
We have a service called Modeloy, which allows human resources developed by Aidemy Business to create projects jointly with our consultants, engineers, and others. Examples of these projects include the utilization of AI in factories, support for the development of visual inspection models, and edge systems that work with existing systems.
Although there have been so-called DX vendors, they have been divided into processes such as human resources development, theme selection, prototype development, and actual operation. One-stop AI ventures are also emerging, but I think the problem there is that the involvement of customers is limited and often no knowledge is left in the customer company.
―Can Aidemy Business and Modeloy solve the problem?
What we want to achieve is to empower customers through our human resources development services first and then enable the human resources developed for them and those from our company to proceed with projects together from theme selection to actual operation. Our approach is to enable developed human resources to take initiative in their company to build a system to utilize AI and DX.
―I heard that you are also working on GX.
Our customers are enthusiastic about not only DX but also environmentally friendly research activities and manufacturing. We feel that there is a paradigm shift in interest in sustainability and carbon neutrality.
We recognize that many customers seek transformation in environmental areas as well. As a partner to help with that transformation, we intend to offer services.
―What kind of services are you planning to offer?
We are in the process of launching the development of teaching materials such as “Carbon Neutral,” “GHG Protocol,” “Circular Economy” and “GX and Digitization.”
As with digitalization, it is necessary for the entire company to make concerted efforts in environmental areas. I think companies need to find at least one leader candidate (ideally, appoint all members) in each job category to engage them in GX, in addition to people dedicated to GX and those in corporate planning and general affairs. Otherwise, people in the company would not change.
We would like to help business divisions strengthen green activities that have been initiated under the leadership of corporate planning and sustainability divisions.
―How can you help them, specifically?
In environmental areas, people often mention supplier engagement (*4), but I think it is just as important to increase internal engagement as it is to encourage suppliers.
For example, Aidemy Business is unique in that it allows companies to find people who have independently learned their specialty. The course log of each company usually shows that about one in 10 people learn independently beyond the course specified by their company.
―You mean that they can find highly engaged people.
In the first place, the content we provide is different from that of security training or other training that is mandatory for everyone. In a company that has introduced Aidemy Business, half of its employees will learn properly, and the other half will not.
I often suggest companies to appoint the main leader for the activities from among those who are interested and have independently learned, rather than considering how to encourage those who are reluctant to learn.
In addition, although services have not yet been launched, we are working on digitization of supplier engagement as a new business.
―How are you working with external stakeholders?
As a startup from the University of Tokyo, we would like to create a system to return the knowledge of academia to clients. In order to improve our services, we have three professors as advisors from the University of Tokyo who respectively specialize in sustainability, robotics and AI, and engineering literacy and are highly interested in academic-industrial partnerships.
In addition, we receive investment from a venture capital fund associated with the University of Tokyo, Daikin Industries, Furukawa Electric, KDDI, and TechnoPro.
We offer a trial course related to DX that is available for three days. We hope that anyone interested will apply from the website.
*1. GX: Abbreviation for green transformation. Efforts to realize social and economic reforms and a sustainable society by solving environmental problems through cutting-edge technologies, such as replacing greenhouse gases and other raw materials from companies with renewable energy and decarbonized gases
*2. Fortune Global 500: Fortune magazine’s annual ranking of the total revenues of companies around the world. A global ranking list of companies
*3. Greatest number of learners among online DX human resources services for corporations: The cumulative total number of corporate learners using paid services provided by one of the 18 companies with JDLA E certification courses from June 3, 2021 to July 26, 2021. Survey by ESP Research Institute
*4. Supplier engagement: Evaluates cooperation with suppliers especially on climate change issues in the annual survey of companies’ environmental initiatives conducted by CDP, a platform that discloses the environmental impact of companies’ and municipalities’ activities
| Company name：Aidemy Inc. |
| Founded：June 2014 |
| Number of employees：93 |
| Main businesses：Providing Aidemy Business, a digital human resources development platform for developing digital talent for DX focused on AI; Aidemy Premium, a Python-specific online programming school; and Modeloy, project-accompanying support services covering all phases from planning to operation URL：https://aidemy.co.jp/en |
This article is part of a series of articles introducing venture companies working together as ICF members to resolve societal issues.