Over 25 years ago, Rakuten was founded with the mission to contribute to society, by creating value through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Today, we continue our pursuit of that mission through AI-nization, our company-wide effort to infuse AI into everything we do for customers, business partners, and employees.
We strive to create a future where the power of AI is accessible to everyone - everywhere, on every device, at every moment of their day.
Our Principles:
Rakuten Group Uniqueness
With more than 70 businesses worldwide serving 2B* members, the domain expertise of approximately 30,000 Rakutenians, and insights gleaned from trillions of interactions over 25 years, we have the data, industry perspective, technical acumen, and global distribution to build and deliver practical and valuable AI solutions that are accessible for everyone.
*Data from year 2024
Rooted in Omotenashi
We cherish the spirit of Omotenashi, the Japanese concept of ultimate service. Every product and service endeavors to anticipate customer needs before they arise to deliver experiences that surprise and delight.
Ethics and Security
We relentlessly pursue innovation, but never compromise on safety, security, or privacy. Our work is guided by the Rakuten AI Code of Ethics, and we employ cutting-edge technical safeguards, and human oversight at every phase of the design, development, and deployment pipeline to ensure that Rakuten AI benefits everyone, and all of society.
Rakuten Group implements and utilizes AI in diverse areas, ranging from lifestyle innovation and business efficiency improvements to solving social challenges. Through the power of AI, we pioneer the future, making daily life and business more convenient, and empowering people and society.
Embodies how Rakuten AI leverages the unlimited potential of AI to push and break boundaries.
Creativity
Expresses Rakuten AI’s dedication to unleashing every customer’s unique potential and vibrant humanity.
Colorful Collaboration
Evokes Rakuten AI's mission of forging a world where humans and AI work together to drive productivity, creativity, and deeper connections across the ecosystem.
This logo is used across a wide range of Rakuten Group services. With Rakuten AI, we at Rakuten are committed to being a trusted partner that can accompany at every moment of your day to empower your dreams and personal and professional growth. We are dedicated to using the power of AI to make the world better for everyone.
FAQ
How safe is AI technology?
Rakuten Group places the highest priority on the safety of AI technology. We ensure data protection and privacy based on strict standards. By utilizing the latest technologies, we are constantly working to enhance safety.
Leveraging AI-powered intelligence to achieve sustainable mobile connectivity
Challenge
To reduce mobile network power consumption.
Mobile networks consume significant energy, with RAN accounting for 80% of total power consumption.
Rakuten Mobile modern mobile network aims to reduce power consumption by 15% - 20%.
AI in Action
Rakuten Mobile AI analyzes and predicts user traffic: adjusts and reduce network power consumption nationwide!
Rakuten Mobile developed a pioneering in-house Radio Intelligent Controller (RIC) with AI-powered intelligence to analyze and adjust user traffic on its nationwide 4G/5G Open RAN (Radio Access Network) for optimal network efficiency.
Key Results
Prioritizing sustainability, Rakuten Mobile achieves approximately 20% reduction in power consumption with no impact on network performance.
Notes: 1. Reduction in power consumption to achieve by the end of 2025 based on pattern analysis and optimization of network uptime. RIC implementation in Rakuten Mobile's commercial network nationwide will gradually expand nationwide. 2. Estimate power consumption reduction is based on projected values. These figures may vary with changes in the number of base stations. 3. Compared to the company’s conventional network. *1 Estimated based on a standard smartphone with a rated voltage of about 3.7V charging from 0% to 100%. *2 Amount saved compared to disposal without recycling. Calculated based on the Japan Container and Packaging Recycling Association’s “Analysis of the Recycling Effects of PET Bottles.”
Cancer treatment research
AI-driven analysis to maximize outcomes of cancer therapy
Rakuten Medical: Advancing Photoimmunotherapy based on the AlluminoxTM Platform with Artificial Intelligence
Challenge
To maximize photoimmunotherapy outcomes, these analyses needed to be performed more efficiently and precisely.
Identify predictive biomarkers that correlate with treatment response.
Accurately quantify drug uptake in tumors, informing dose-response relationships.
AI in Action
Using AI to analyze blood samples and pathological images from patients treated with photoimmunotherapy.
AI enabled in-depth analysis of immune cell types, quantities, and activity, evaluating correlations with treatment outcomes.
AI-powered image processing enabled the accurate measurement of drug uptake by cancer cells at the single-cell level.
Key Results
The following insights were obtained with improved accuracy and efficiency through AI-powered analysis.
Identification of potential immune biomarkers correlating with treatment response.
Cellular-level confirmation of high drug uptake in tumor cells prior to light activation.
Developing open Japanese-optimized LLMs
Developing a high-performance, efficient Japanese-optimzed LLM to boost AI adoption and democratize AI in Japan
Challenge
LLMs developed overseas are optimized for English and may have insufficient quality during Japanese use.
*An LLM (Large Language Model) is a language model with a large scale of data volume (number of tokens), computational complexity, and number of parameters. A wealth of words stored in the LLM, enables generation of natural and fluent conversations.
AI in Action
Developed open Japanese-optimized LLMs with high performance and efficiency to support developers and businesses with LLMs suited to local applications.
Rakuten’s LLMs have optimized Japanese-optimized language processing and generation capabilities, for high performance in various tasks including documentation, translation, summarization, and customer support.
Rakuten’s suite of language models offer the flexibility to choose the best model for your usage scenario.
Rakuten AI 7B:Mid-size model with excellent Japanese and English capabilities.
Rakuten AI 2.0:Balances high performance and efficiency. Suitable for handling complex tasks and large datasets.
Rakuten AI 2.0 mini:deal for applications prioritizing low cost, low latency, and privacy.
Released as open models under the Apache 2.0 license for anyone to use and modify free of charge.
Key Results
Rakuten promotes the adoption of high-performance AI in Japan, to contribute to the nation’s economic revitalization.
Rakuten’s first LLM, Rakuten AI 7B, received top-level evaluation among open Japanese LLMs when released in the Spring of 2024.
In 2025, Rakuten unveiled an even higher-performance LLM, Rakuten AI 2.0, which delivers 8x the performance of Rakuten AI 7B while reducing cost by 2.5x.
Comparative scores for Rakuten AI 2.0 instruct model and Rakuten AI 2.0 mini instruct model and other top performing models made by other Japanese companies and academic institutions
Future developments
Rakuten was selected for the GENIAC project, an initiative led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and NEDO to strengthen domestic generative AI development. As a selected project participant, Rakuten begin research and development in August 2025 on a cutting-edge, open-weight AI foundation model.
Significantly expand the model’s memory to increase the amount of information accessible during response generation.
Achieve more personalized responses through the long-term memory of user conversations.
Go beyond understanding to proactively nurture long-term relationships.
Generative AI services support various corporate activities
Leveraging Rakuten's AI successes to empower all businesses, including SMEs, and level the playing field
Challenge
SMEs unsure of how to use AI hesitate to invest limited resources to adopt it.
Only 16.9% of Japanese companies have AI systems*1, lagging behind other developed countries.
An estimated 6.44 million worker shortage is projected by 2030*2.
Applying general AI chat services to specific industries or job functions is a challenge that hinders adoption.
*1 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, “2023 Survey on Communications Usage Trends” *2 Source: PERSOL Research and Consulting, “Future Estimate of Labor 2030”
AI in Action
Rakuten AI for Business leverages Rakuten's AI success cases to support corporate customers implementing AI.
Job-Specific Prompts:Easily generate highly accurate outputs by using job-specific templates.
Application Examples:Introducing effective examples and know-how of Rakuten AI utilization within Rakuten.
Security:Ensuring secure usage by preventing input information from being used for AI training.
Progress Dashboard:Monitoring internal usage with a dashboard and leveraging data to improve the utilization rate.
Key Results
Rakuten aims to improve client efficiency by 20% through AI and support economic revitalization in Japan for all businesses, including SMEs.
Companies using Rakuten AI for Business have commented
Use Cases of Trial Companies
Industry
Usage Example
Energy
Generating customer emails using customer support history recorded by the call center.
Hospitality
Improving the efficiency and consistency of customer support by generating emails for accommodation reservations, including those from overseas travelers.
Real Estate
Improving the efficiency and consistency of communication with tenant owners and providing local value-added information.
Website Creation
Generating content and articles for website production companies.
Advertising
Supporting marketing operations by generating ideas for advertising and video content production.
Software Development
Improving the quality of communication content in interactions with customers.
Local Government
Improving the efficiency of various administrative tasks in educational settings and main government office operations.
AI utilization support for merchants
Rakuten AI University supports AI utilization for merchants on Rakuten Ichiba
"Rakuten AI University" is an online learning service provided by Rakuten University, specializing in the application of AI. It is intended for stores operating on the Rakuten Ichiba platform.
Challenge
The direction for AI utilization in store operations remains unclear.
While there is an abundance of information about AI, practical knowledge that can be applied on-site is scarce, and many merchants are unable to find their next step forward.
Source: Rakuten New Year Conference 2024
AI in Action
Support through courses that teach fundamental knowledge and tool utilization methods.
We provide free video content for merchants to learn AI basics and implementation methods. Additionally, we support practical understanding through monthly online study sessions.
This content only released in Japanese.
Key Results
Supporting merchants through educational programs on AI fundamentals and tool applications.
Free video content is offered to help participating retailers learn AI basics and practical applications. Monthly online workshops further enhance hands-on understanding and implementation skills.
AI implementation in merchant tools
Streamlining store operations by adding AI to existing tools used by merchants on Rakuten Ichiba.
Challenge
Rakuten Ichiba is crucial channels for merchants, and streamlining operational costs is also a key priority.
AI in Action
AI-powered tools are seamlessly added to existing platforms, enabling all merchants to easily streamline operations - product listing, image creation, review analysis, customer service etc.
Example
RMS AI Assistant for merchants on Rakuten Ichiba
Process image: automatically producing high-quality visuals that highlight product appeal.
Analyze data: Analyze merchant sales data using AI. The feature analyzes key indicators such as number of visitors to the store, customer purchase amount and conversion rate before explaining sales trends and characteristics compared to the previous year.
Key Results
Maintain exceptional end-user UX while achieving significant operational efficiency gains for merchants.
Example
One merchant reduced product image creation time by 90%, and AI-driven ad placement and product bundling strategies have yielded a 1.5x improvement in advertising performance.
This content only released in Japanese.
Enhancing logistics and delivery efficiency
AI-driven logistics: Rakuten's smart packing & routing for a thriving E-commerce market. Transforming the logistics industry with autonomous delivery robots
Challenge
Driven by e-commerce expansion, rising delivery demands are colliding with a labor shortage in the logistics sector. This presents significant opportunities to streamline efficiencies across the entire delivery process, from packaging to final delivery.
AI in Action
Enhancing logistics and delivery efficiency with AI, data, and robotics, including:
Optimized packaging: Utilizing AI at Rakuten’s distribution centers to select the right-sized packaging.
AI-driven route optimization: Developing and deploying a dispatch management system leverages data to calculate optimal delivery routes, reducing transit times and mileage.
Delivery with autonomous delivery robots: Deployed an autonomous delivery service in the Harumi area, which uses robots equipped with self-driving and collision-avoidance capabilities to deliver goods from local retailers and restaurants.
Key Results
Meeting growing delivery demands while improving operational efficiency, contributing to environmental sustainability (addressing societal challenges) and business growth.
Reduced delivery costs: Optimized delivery routes and reduced redeliveries have resulted in a 15% decrease* in delivery mileage. *Based on actual results of Rakuten Mart and Rakuten Zenkoku Super, which have introduced this logistics system, in the first month of introduction.
Lower environmental impact: Reduced delivery distances, optimized packaging materials leading to improved truck loading efficiency, and fewer transport trips contribute to an overall reduction in CO2 emissions.
Alleviating labor shortages: Reduced staffing challenges in the logistics industry using autonomous delivery robots.
Enabling search with user intent
Understanding customer needs: Leveraging semantic search and Rakuten data to optimize search experiences and drive growth
Challenge
Rakuten Ichiba offers an enormous selection of approximately 500 million items*, but with traditional keyword search, users sometimes couldn't find the products they were really looking for.
*As of May 2025
AI in Action
Implementing semantic search enables AI to understand the intent behind search queries, rather than simply matching keywords.
Semantic search, a deep learning technology, can enhance e-commerce platform search. For example, a search for "summer dress" prompts the AI to recognize related concepts like "breezy," "resort," and "trendy," delivering highly relevant results that align with the user’s true needs.
The AI quantifies the “meaning” of words and products, assigning each a ”position” in a multi-dimensional vector space. It then compares this position with the user's search query. Consequently, the AI finds highly relevant search results that are similar with the user's true intent.
Embodies how Rakuten AI leverages the unlimited potential of AI to push and break boundaries.
Expresses Rakuten AI’s dedication to unleashing every customer’s unique potential and vibrant humanity.
Evokes Rakuten AI's mission of forging a world where humans and AI work together to drive productivity, creativity, and deeper connections across the ecosystem.
