Photo/Illutration Masayoshi Son, chairman and president of SoftBank Group Corp., and Sam Altman, CEO of U.S.-based OpenAI, discuss projects at an event held in Tokyo on July 16. (Naoko Murai)

SoftBank Group Corp. plans to have 1 billion “AI (artificial intelligence) agents” working in place of humans by the end of this year, the company’s chairman and president said on July 16.

Masayoshi Son announced the plan at a company event in Tokyo for corporate clients.

According to Son, these AI agents can answer questions and make suggestions, as well as perform tasks such as replying to emails, making reservations at stores and repairing systems.

Son said that in a future with AI agents, they could, for example, perform maintenance and inspections on the hundreds of thousands of system devices in Japan.

“Until now, sensors have detected (problems) and people have given instructions, but AI agents will make individual judgments and take action for each device,” Son said.

The plan is to have each employee of SoftBank Group create more than 1,000 AI agents, building up to 1 billion.

The AI agents, customized for each employee, will be responsible for some of the day-to-day decisions and negotiations.

With that, each employee will become like Senju Kannon, a Buddhist deity depicted with a thousand arms, Son said.

The company will also create an operating system (OS) to allow the AI agents to cooperate with each other, he said.

Sam Altman, CEO of U.S.-based OpenAI, also participated in the online event.

OpenAI is working with SoftBank Group on Stargate, a project to build a network of massive data centers in the United States, and Altman said the project is making good progress.

In February, the two companies announced that they will provide an AI service called Cristal Intelligence for businesses in Japan.

At the event, Son expressed concern that the use of generative AI in Japan is lagging behind that of the United States and China.

“I also feel that (Japanese) society as a whole is getting a little old,” he said. “The most important thing for Japan today is to take this evolution head-on and participate in it on its own.”

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