Hakuhodo and VisasQ Enter Capital and Business Alliance. Joint Development of 'Expert AI' Learning Experts' Perspectives and Judgment Criteria

Hakuhodo Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Kenji Nagura; hereinafter Hakuhodo) and VisasQ Inc. (Headquarters: Meguro-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Eiko Hashiba; hereinafter VisasQ), which operates a global knowledge platform, concluded a capital and business alliance agreement on April 14.

With the joint development of 'Expert AI,' an AI service that has learned the perspectives, judgment criteria, and thought processes of experts at its core, both companies aim to realize new decision-making support for business expansion and new business development by organically combining AI analysis with the insights of real-world experts. Furthermore, they will accelerate business growth by promoting the development of new services utilizing both companies' strengths and sales collaboration through the mutual utilization of customer bases.

◼️ Background of this Alliance
With the spread of generative AI, the cost and time required for information gathering and initial analysis have been significantly reduced. As information becomes homogenized, the insights cultivated by experts through experience are becoming increasingly important for decision-making that leads to differentiation. On the other hand, when companies consider new businesses or market entry, a major barrier is the situation of 'not knowing what we don't know.' Without the common sense and perspectives specific to that industry, it is not even easy to formulate appropriate questions to draw out the insights of experts.

At Hakuhodo, the Hakuhodo DY Group's cross-sectional AI expert group 'HCAI Professionals' aims to structure and visualize human decision-making and tacit knowledge through the use of AI. For example, the CX Creative Division, a next-generation creative organization that aims to create integrated customer experiences beyond the advertising domain by combining Hakuhodo's strength in 'Seikatsusha (consumer) Insight' and 'latest technology,' has supported companies through 'B2B Deep Insight with AI,' an AI-driven business negotiation simulation that helps evolve customer and employee experiences in BtoB companies, and 'Virtual Seikatsusha,' which reproduces consumer decision-making with AI personas.

VisasQ, with an expert network of over 800,000 people domestically and internationally, has accumulated know-how in connecting knowledge to the resolution of business issues through its track record of implementation in 1 out of 4 companies listed on the TSE Prime Market (*1) and matching support for approximately 120,000 interviews annually (*2).

*1 As of March 2026
*2 Track record from March 2024 to February 2025

◼️ Content of this Alliance
(1) Content of Business Alliance
In this capital and business alliance, we will jointly develop 'Expert AI,' an AI service targeting corporate personnel working on new business development, market entry, and marketing strategy planning. This service combines the industry-specific common sense and perspectives possessed by VisasQ's experts with Hakuhodo's know-how in structuring decision-making thoughts and its AI engine.

This service learns the perspectives, judgment criteria, and thought processes of experts. Simply by entering a theme, it automatically provides everything from market research to competitive analysis and suggestions for strategy planning in an end-to-end manner. Since it covers not only the BtoC domain but also the BtoB domain, which requires specialized industry analysis, it demonstrates great strength in corporate marketing and service development.

The AI handles the prerequisite knowledge and market common sense shared by experts, while the design connects to real experts for deep insights tailored to specific contexts and final decision-making. By seamlessly connecting AI-driven initial analysis to actual expert interview requests and matching, it realizes a new form of decision-making support that organically fuses AI and human expertise.

Going forward, not limited to the joint development of AI services, we will continuously promote the development of new services leveraging the strengths of both companies and cooperatively advance the sales and provision of services utilizing the customer bases of both companies.

(2) Number of Shares Transferred and Ratio to the Total Number of Issued Shares (excluding treasury stock)
The number of shares transferred from Ms. Hashiba to Hakuhodo is 40,000 shares, and the ratio to the total number of issued shares (excluding treasury stock) is 0.43%.

◼️ Comment from Eiko Hashiba, CEO of VisasQ Inc.
Toward the realization of our vision to 'create a global platform that most effectively connects various missions with global knowledge, transcending all barriers including organizations, generations, and regions, and contribute to a better future,' we are working on the use of generative AI to match clients' diverse needs with experts' knowledge faster, more accurately, and in greater volume. As one example, since last year, ...