MUFG Bank Selects UPWARD as AX Partner for Sales Domain

UPWARD Inc. (Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Ryusuke Kanagi, hereinafter referred to as UPWARD), a provider of AI agents for field sales, today announced that it has entered into an AX (AI Transformation) consulting agreement with MUFG Bank, Ltd. (Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & Group CEO: Masakazu Osawa, hereinafter referred to as MUFG Bank) to support its AX in the sales domain.

This partnership will promote the advancement of field sales, primarily face-to-face interactions, and establish a strategic sales system based on data and AI. As a pilot project, the enormous task of creating visit plans during personnel changes will be automatically optimized using "UPWARD Geo AI Scheduler," aiming for an annual reduction of approximately 10,000 man-hours.

Background of the AX Consulting Agreement

The financial industry is shifting from uniform product offerings to a supportive, companion-style approach tailored to individual customers, in line with the transition to a "world with interest rates" (the environment after the Bank of Japan's negative interest rate policy is lifted). In this context, face-to-face outreach activities play a central role in strategy and are a crucial factor in differentiating from competitors. However, the field faces challenges of severe resource shortages and personalization dependent on "intuition and experience," making structural reform to "transform face-to-face touchpoints into corporate assets" an urgent necessity.

UPWARD provides various AI solutions that combine maps and AI, based on its proprietary patented location detection technology. It supports the conversion of close communication unique to face-to-face interactions into data, leading to tangible sales results.

In this partnership with MUFG Bank, UPWARD will go beyond simply providing services; as an AX consultant, it will deeply understand the bank's unique complex business practices, on-site operations, and security requirements, and provide support for AI implementation and adoption tailored to these realities.

Optimization of "Handover Greetings" with "Geo AI Scheduler" (Pilot Project)

A major pillar of this partnership is the automation of visit planning and strategic reform using UPWARD's "Geo AI Scheduler." "Geo AI Scheduler" is a function that automatically creates visit plans based on visit priorities and customer location information derived from activity history and sales data accumulated in the CRM. This supports maximizing sales performance by enabling "focused visits to customers with high closing probability" and "optimization of travel efficiency."

As a pilot project, we will promote the efficiency and optimization of visit plan creation for "handover greetings" accompanying personnel changes, which are important for maintaining customer relationships. This involves the so-called "logistics planning" (preparatory tasks such as selecting visit destinations, determining order, and adjusting routes).

For example, when a branch manager is replaced, visits to hundreds of business partners are conducted within one month from the internal announcement of the transfer to the official appointment. During this time, the person in charge of "logistics planning" manually adjusted schedules by switching between Excel and maps, which took a lot of time to finalize and was highly inefficient.

By automating this task with "Geo AI Scheduler," the following benefits are expected:

Reduction in planning man-hours: Reduction of "logistics planning" work, which previously took about 15 hours per personnel change. With an annual scale of approximately 700 personnel changes, over 10,000 man-hours are expected to be reduced.

Maximization of visit count: With a shorter "logistics planning" period, an increase in actual visit days and visit counts is anticipated.

Improvement in plan quality: Prevention of human oversight and duplicate entries, and formulation of rational travel routes that do not rely on "intuition and experience." Furthermore, in the event of a sudden cancellation, the AI will immediately select another optimal visit destination.

In addition, instead of leaving all planning to AI, a "hybrid method" is introduced where the representative selects priority customers individually and inputs them into the schedule, and the AI efficiently fills the remaining time. This allows for both guaranteed visits to important customers and maximization of overall travel efficiency.

* An overview of "UPWARD Geo AI Scheduler" can be viewed in the following video:

"UPWARD" Revolutionizing the Last Mile of Field Operations

"UPWARD" is a sales support service based on AI specialized for field and visiting sales. It provides automatic recording of customer touchpoints through patented "advanced geofencing" technology and various AI functions specialized for field sales. It has been introduced by approximately 450 companies, mainly large corporations whose primary sales channel is face-to-face customer interaction.

Service Site: https://upward.jp/

"UPWARD" Introduction Materials: https://upward.jp/downloads/allservicematerials/

About UPWARD Inc.

UPWARD Inc., with its purpose to "unleash the creativity of field workers and accelerate the growth of companies and society," provides AX services specializing in solving the challenges faced by field workers who create value through offline interactions with customers during their visits. By leveraging technology to create an environment where work can be performed with just a mobile device, we aim for a world where people can thrive regardless of their work location or situation.

Company Profile

Company Name: UPWARD Inc.

Established: July 2016

Representative: CEO Ryusuke Kanagi

Location: Marunouchi Eiraku Building 26F, 1-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Business Activities: Development and provision of field sales AI agent "UPWARD"

URL: https://corp.upward.jp/

Media Inquiries

UPWARD Inc. Corporate Division PR Team

03-6897-3683

pr@upward.jp