The Issue is How to Incorporate Humanity in Digital and Other Technology

We cannot escape the feeling that the COVID pandemic and war have called into question the world that we had all taken for granted. Many of us are trying through trial-and-error to evolve our own work in response to this new age.

The New York in which I lived for 25 years has changed dramatically in the two years since the pandemic began.

• Before COVID, the minimum hourly wage was $15 (¥2025). Since COVID signs have appeared offering $27 per hour for restaurant dish washers; but restaurants still lack staff. In the food-and-beverage industry, efforts to minimize labor costs already include introducing robots and other machines in kitchens.
• In 2020-2021, the price of New York real estate declined 40 percent. Noticing this trend, investors from around the world began scooping up buildings in Manhattan. Nearly 30 percent of buildings changed owners. Because of the pandemic, working at home became mainstream, and more than half of office buildings were empty. As rising interest rates squeezed finance, the number of transactions bottomed out and corporate earnings began to stagnate. The collapse of the once highly valued equities market also had a strong impact on real estate, strengthening the possibility of an unprecedented decline.
• As even stores on Fifth Avenue were affected by the end of the era of easy-going pricing, e-commerce consumer interfaces continued to evolve. Business became impossible without the introduction of AI capabilities to optimize both the products and timing of offers. Data on consumer behavior is now captured in databases used by AI to develop proposals that anticipate behavioral psychology based on consumers’ tastes and preferences. It is impossible for e-commerce to do business in global markets without this technology.
• While crude oil prices have soared, and maritime shipping delays have increased dramatically, costs of maritime shipping have increased seven to eightfold. Producers around the world face shipping delays and extraordinary increases in shipping costs when delivering goods to America. Rethinking the role of imported items in product lineups is happening nationwide. Trading companies that are major players in importing Japanese foot products to America are being forced to raise their prices and facing conditions in which fear of losing US market share in price competition with domestic suppliers is squeezing profits to a bare minimum. Only firms with ample internal reserves will survive this situation.

Adapting to this global environment requires in particular doing more to address issues related to sustainability, racial discrimination, and education. Our times require progress and expansion in solving these problems. The key to developing solutions is a revolution in IT (digital technology).

From a marketing perspective, it is necessary to offer products and services that satisfy these standards and to use Ai (humanity) to develop sales activities that resonate with consumers. This is an opportunity for even small companies to develop new products and grow large sales worldwide. Using SNS, which have become indispensable to young consumers since the start of the new millennium, to communicate humanity is the essential point.

Along with techniques for conveying empathy and spreading information, incorporating AI is an immense opportunity to increase efficiency. But winning this competition will require developing stories that take full advantage of Japan’s skill in using both words and images to communicate “thoughtfulness” in how products are made. In this new era, IT will continue to provide the foundation, but humanity will be the key to success.

Our company is based in New York, but our network is responsible for the whole of America and Europe as well. If UNIVA CAPITAL Group members have customers wanting to develop branding or open new sales channels in this area, especially in America, please ask them to consult us. We will be happy to develop detailed proposals for them.

UNIVA America, Inc. CEO
Nobu Kimoto