Frontier TPRM Agents: Launch of AI Agent Automation for Third-Party Risk Management and Due Diligence

[Overview] Frontier Advisory & Consulting Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Yohei Shoda), a professional firm specializing in digital governance, has expanded its existing Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) consulting services with the launch of 'Frontier TPRM Agents,' an automation service for supplier due diligence (DD) utilizing AI agent technology.

This service is the second installment of AI agent utilization in the GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) domain, following the 'Frontier Audit Agent' internal audit AI solution announced in March 2026.

■ Background: Changes in the TPRM Environment With the increasing complexity of supply chains, growing dependence on cloud and external services, and a rise in cyber incidents originating from third parties, enhancing TPRM has become a critical management issue across all industries. Domestic and international regulations and guidelines are also trending toward stricter supplier management, requiring organizations to build more comprehensive TPRM frameworks.

However, many organizations find their TPRM operations lack effectiveness. Supplier management is often siloed by department, leaving the company without a clear view of which suppliers are critical. Evaluations frequently become mere 'checklist-filling' exercises that fail to identify truly high-risk suppliers. These issues stem from two structural problems:

1. Most TPRM tasks involve repetitive 'collection, organization, evaluation, and documentation' of information, yet they remain heavily dependent on manual labor. 2. Interpreting diverse reports from suppliers (financial, security, compliance) requires high expertise, which is difficult for on-site staff to maintain consistently. Improving workflow alone does not solve this 'quality of judgment' issue.

AI agents, capable of both automating routine tasks and supporting expert judgment, offer an effective approach to these challenges.

■ Overview of Frontier TPRM Agents 'Frontier TPRM Agents' is a suite of AI agents independently developed by the company based on Anthropic's Claude AI technology. It can be customized to match a client's specific TPRM processes, and AI agents automatically execute the main stages of the supplier due diligence (DD) process.

As the first phase, it covers the following six use cases for DD processes during procurement contracts:

- **UC-01: Supplier Evaluation**: Creating company profiles from public information and web searches. - **UC-02: Importance Rating**: Automatic Tier 1/2/3 determination based on five evaluation axes. - **UC-03: Market Evaluation**: Researching market structure, alternative suppliers, and competitiveness. - **UC-04: Management System Evaluation**: Automatic generation of Tier-specific evaluation sheets and validation of response validity. - **UC-05: Gap Analysis & Improvement Recommendations**: Scoring, heat maps, and formulation of improvement roadmaps. - **UC-06: DD Integrated Report**: Integrated analysis of all UC results and decision-making reports for management.

The system is designed so that AI agents automatically execute the majority of key steps in the DD process (information gathering, scoring, evaluation sheet generation, gap analysis, report creation, etc.).

There is no need to build a new dedicated TPRM system environment. Furthermore, users can deepen their understanding or request additional analysis of AI-generated results through dialogue with the AI, offering flexibility not found in traditional tools.

■ Design Philosophy ### Human-in-the-Loop AI agents provide recommended judgments, while the final decision-maker is always the human user. Routine collection, analysis, and documentation are handled by AI, while humans intervene in situations requiring judgment, following a 'semi-automated' model. ### Full Traceability All processing steps are recorded for post-audit tracking. AI-generated results include an information accuracy rating (high/medium/low) to make the reliability of judgments transparent. Information that could not be obtained is also clearly indicated. ### Sub-Agent Review A review agent, independent of the primary decision agent, validates quality and detects hallucinations (generation of inaccurate information by AI).

■ Expected Benefits ### Efficiency (Man-hour Reduction) By having AI agents execute the main steps of the DD process, the workload of TPRM personnel is significantly reduced, allowing them to focus on higher-level decision-making. The same resources can evaluate more suppliers. ### Quality Standardization AI structurally supports the uniform application of evaluation criteria, prevents omissions in research perspectives, and standardizes report formats. This eliminates variations caused by the skill or experience of staff, ensuring consistent evaluations. ### Lead Time Reduction Continuous processing by AI agents from information gathering to report creation drastically compresses the duration of the entire DD process. This enables timely reporting of risk info to management and parallel processing of multiple cases.

■ Service Structure This service is offered as an expansion of existing TPRM consulting through the following four services:

1. **TPRM Framework Assessment & Design**: Diagnosing current status and designing a target framework assuming AI agent use. 2. **Frontier TPRM Agents DD Operations Support**: Using our AI agents to assist in data collection, analysis, and reporting for the client's DD process. 3. **Frontier TPRM Agents Implementation Support**: Deploying our AI agents to the client's environment with customization and pilot operations. 4. **TPRM Operations Enhancement Support**: Continuous support for additional customization and expansion to new use cases after full operation begins.

■ Future Outlook Following this release, the company plans to automate continuous monitoring during contracts, exit management at contract termination, and inspection/evaluation on the receiving side of outsourcing with AI agents.