“Highest-level compensation for AI-proficient engineers”: Hello Inc. declares goal of 15 million yen average annual salary by 2027

## Hello Inc. Declares Goal of 15 Million Yen Average Engineer Salary

Hello Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuki Hariguchi; hereinafter “Hello”), known for its AI-powered restaurant reservation service "AutoReserve," all-in-one cloud for restaurants "Respo," and AI service "HelloX," has announced plans to implement a new compensation structure and expanded AI support policies starting in June 2026. The company aims to raise its average engineer salary to 15 million yen by the end of 2027.

Currently, the average annual salary for Hello's engineers is 11.5 million yen. Generative AI is already standard operating equipment for every engineer at the firm. Through this policy shift, the company aims to solidify its position as an elite, high-productivity organization offering industry-leading compensation. Whether new graduates or mid-career hires, compensation will be determined by job category, skills, and performance, rather than tenure. The initiative includes comprehensive AI tool subsidies and the integration of AI usage metrics into career advancement evaluations.

## Productivity and Compensation Structure through Elite Principles

Hello maintains rigorous hiring standards not merely to justify high compensation, but to ensure team productivity by preventing the workload imbalances that arise from mismatched hiring. By carefully screening technical skills and problem-solving abilities, the company ensures that every member remains focused on high-difficulty tasks.

This salary hike represents a result of this elite operational strategy and serves as a declaration that Hello aims to be the top-of-mind company for high-level engineers in both working environment and financial compensation. Under the new system, senior and principal engineers can receive offers exceeding 20 million yen annually.

## Institutionalizing AI Usage Support

Beyond merely providing tools, the company standardizes "AI immersion" across the organization:

- **Tool Provision**: Full coverage of subscription costs for generative/coding AI such as Claude Code and Codex.
- **Tracking Usage**: Utilizing the usage aggregation service "supateam" to share weekly token consumption metrics on Slack and setting organization-wide targets.
- **Knowledge Sharing**: A culture of daily sharing of prompts, workflows, and assistance from experienced engineers.
- **Integration into Evaluations**: Explicitly including "productivity improvement through AI" as a component of career grading and evaluation.

CTO Futo Sugimoto commented, "We fairly reward engineers who don't just use AI to write code, but who 'engineer' AI to tackle higher-value problems." Casual interviews are accepted year-round via their recruitment portal.