In just ten weeks, SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) employees created more than 2.5 million AI agents, marking one of the largest known internal AI utilization initiatives ever conducted in Japan. Far more than a simple rollout of new tools, this company-wide effort was designed to build an organization where every employee can confidently use AI in their daily work.

The impact has been transformational. AI is no longer viewed as an abstract concept at SoftBank-it has become a natural and essential part of everyday operations, influencing everything from back-office processes to editorial workflows.

A large-scale initiative to make AI part of everyday work

The initiative came after the SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced a partnership in February 2025 to develop and commercialize "Crystal intelligence," an advanced enterprise AI. As AI adoption accelerated globally, SoftBank recognized a new challenge: ensuring its workforce had the skills and confidence to fully leverage AI tools.

In June 2025, the company launched an ambitious internal program that gave every employee access to generative AI tools. Each person was asked to create 100 AI agents over the summer, not as a technical requirement, but as a way to make AI experimentation part of everyday work.

Rather than expecting immediate expertise, the program emphasized hands-on experience, inviting employees-regardless of their background-to try out AI tools. The goal was to increase touchpoints with AI, reduce hesitation, and build familiarity through repeated interaction.

Supporting every employee: training, sharing and a festival-like atmosphere

To help all employees participate, SoftBank provided a wide range of learning opportunities, including e-learning sessions, AI agent creation seminars and department-specific support. AI agents were actively shared through internal communication tools, generating a wave of creativity across the company.

Aina Ota, a member of the project office, recalled the early uncertainty and the surprising results:

"Since this was an unprecedented undertaking, we weren't sure how employees would react to the goal of creating 100 AI agents. But we encouraged everyone to just start and see what happened.

"We focused on creating entry points-ways to motivate people to try making AI agents-and initiatives to keep the excitement going. Some departments even got ahead of schedule, creating a festival-like atmosphere."

By the end of August, just two and a half months after launch, employees had collectively created over 2.5 million AI agents. An internal survey later revealed that 90% of participants viewed the initiative positively, highlighting a strong sense of unity and shared purpose.

AI usage gets embedded in SoftBank culture

A follow-up survey conducted in September 2025 received 9,207 responses, with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Nearly 90% of employees said their understanding of generative AI had deepened, and about 80% said they could clearly envision how to use it in their future work.

Some employee comments were as follows:

• "The project deepened my understanding and interest in generative AI."
• "AI feels embedded across the entire company."
• "I'm already using AI in my daily work."
• "Next, I want to focus on creating higher-quality agents."

What began as a project has become part of SoftBank's culture. AI is now viewed as a practical, accessible tool-exactly the transformation the initiative aimed for.

Toward a society where using AI is second nature

The initiative marks not an endpoint but just the beginning. It demonstrated how AI can reshape individual workflows, team collaboration and organizational capability.

SoftBank continues to drive company-wide AI utilization through these three pillars:

1. Building an AI utilization infrastructure
2. Providing generative AI learning programs
3. Promoting initiatives that encourage AI adoption

Complementing this effort is the SoftBank Group-wide Generative AI Utilization Contest, which gives employees opportunities to compete, learn and refine their skills.

As a result, over 2,000 employees have obtained AI-related certifications, and more than 1,000 employees are gaining expertise in emerging fields such as AI and cloud technologies, demonstrating meaningful progress toward an AI-skilled workforce.

AI is quickly becoming second nature at SoftBank, and this initiative shows how an entire organization can grow together in the AI era.

(Posted on December 17, 2025)
by SoftBank News Editors