LY Corporation is one of Japan’s largest tech companies, delivering news, e-commerce, advertising, and membership programs to enrich users’ lives.
The company, which operates platforms such as LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN, is driven by its mission to create “WOW” moments that enrich life for its over 200 million global users. LY Corporation uses OpenAI’s API to rethink how users interact with information, the internet, and each other.
LY Corporation’s services, like the messaging app LINE and Yahoo! JAPAN, are central to everyday life in Japan. With millions of monthly active users (MAUs), they constantly explore the potential of generative AI to create “WOW” moments.
“With over 200 million MAUs, LY Corporation is in the best position to deliver AI solutions closest to users,” says Mr. Gen Miyazawa, Executive Corporate Officer and Senior General Manager of LY Corporation’s Generative AI Group.
With the immense volume of data generated by its users, LY Corporation needed an AI solution that could process information efficiently while providing valuable, actionable insights for both users and employees.
“It’s crucial to talk directly to the companies that make the most advanced LLMs, which is why we have worked with OpenAI from the beginning,” says Mr. Miyazawa.
With OpenAI’s help, company identified several priorities:
- Adapting flagship services to AI: LY Corporation needed to modernize platforms like LINE Messenger and Yahoo! JAPAN while preserving their intuitive user experience.
- New possibilities in image and video generation: LY Corporation aimed to scale its development of image and video generation, leveraging the same methods utilized AI text generators.
- Balancing user trust and AI transparency: Incorporating AI into user-facing products required clear communication about AI’s role in service delivery.
“Just like at the dawn of the internet, when there were no clear answers, we felt that moving fast and trying many things would aid in learning. We decided to go all-in from the beginning,” says Mr. Miyazawa.
These innovations were only possible due to the robust AI infrastructure that LY Corporation had built with OpenAI’s assistance. This infrastructure emphasized governance, ethics, and employee education to ensure safe and effective use of Generative AI within the organization.
In July 2024, LY Corporation implemented a company-wide rollout of SeekAI, an in-house productivity tool developed on OpenAI’s API. SeekAI leverages RAG to provide answers to employee inquiries by referencing internal workspaces and in-house documentation databases. This new tool makes it possible to immediately display the most appropriate responses from a vast pool of information across different departments, resulting in reducing the time needed for both verifications and inquiries.
When using OpenAI’s model, LY Corporation carefully evaluated three key aspects of data safety:
- Zero Data Retention: OpenAI does not retain any data that employees input into ChatGPT.
- Data Input and Output: Input and output are not used for training the AI models or enhancing their performance.
- No Secondary Use of Data: OpenAI guarantees that data is not repurposed or shared with third parties.
These ensured that employees could confidently integrate AI tools into their workflows, driving productivity gains across the organization.
Since collaborating with OpenAI, LY Corporation has developed 32 AI-driven use cases (as of December 2024), centered on leveraging OpenAI’s models, simultaneously enhancing user experiences and streamlining internal operations.
Today LY Corporation uses AI to improve experiences across user applications, business user services, and internal applications.
The LINE AI Assistant is an AI tool that feels like a friend. Powered by GPT‑4o in text interactions, users can conveniently access AI from the LINE app they use every day.
LY Corporation has released new features on Yahoo! JAPAN Search that utilize GPT‑4 and 4o to summarize restaurant and product reviews, and generate travel plans, helping users make quick decisions. LY Corporation selected its model after evaluating the GPT‑4 series’ high-level accuracy in both summarization and text generation, combined with the ease of incorporating internal data.
Internally, the deployment of AI tools has led to substantial efficiency gains. LY Corporation estimates a reduction of 700,000–800,000 annual working hours, enabling teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
Externally, the enhancements to Yahoo! JAPAN and LINE services have significantly improved user satisfaction by offering personalized, high-quality experiences. By leveraging user feedback, LY Corporation continues to refine its AI-driven features, fostering a deeper connection with its audience.
LY Corporation anticipates substantial growth driven by AI. From a mid- to long-term perspective, the company projects:
- Annual sales increases of ¥110B yen (roughly $715M USD), driven by new gen AI-powered features.
- Productivity improvements valued at ¥10B yen ($65M USD) annually through operational efficiencies.
As one of OpenAI’s most active API users, LY Corporation has also emerged as a leader in the space, actively participating as a beta tester for OpenAI’s new products.
Looking forward, LY Corporation aims to further embed AI into its services and operations. By continuing to innovate with OpenAI, the company is committed to delivering the “WOW” and “!” moments that define its mission.
