[116 Hours Saved/Month] How to Achieve 'Increasing Wages Despite Labor Shortage'? Explaining 'HR Evaluation x Generative AI' Utilization for SME Support

Labor shortages, rising minimum wages, and the personalization of business processes—many SMEs are currently facing the management challenge of having to "increase wages despite a lack of personnel."

Meanwhile, with the growing attention on generative AI, there are increasing consultations such as "I don't know where to start," "AI is not used on-site even after implementation," or "it doesn't ultimately lead to profit improvement."

Against this backdrop, Kyuyo Up Kenkyusho Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Kyosuke Takahashi) held a free online seminar on April 18, 2026 (Sat) themed "Thorough Explanation of Proposal Methods for HR Evaluation Systems Utilizing Generative AI (Claude Code)."

Rather than just using AI tools, this seminar provided a comprehensive explanation on:

- Visualizing inefficient work through business inventory
- Reducing work through generative AI
- Integration with HR evaluation systems
- Systematizing productivity improvement for wage increases

Instead of "how to use AI," it focused on "how to build an organization that can generate profits with a limited number of people," attracting significant interest from business owners and HR personnel.

## Why is 'Business Improvement x AI' necessary now?

The seminar first identified the following three challenges in the environment surrounding SMEs:

1. Deepening labor shortage
2. Rising wage increase pressure
3. Business personalization and inefficiency

Especially now, it has become difficult to solve these by simply "increasing staff," making it important to "create an organization that maximizes results with the current number of people."

It was explained that the purpose is not "to introduce AI," but to "transform the organization into one that can generate profits even with limited staff."

## A 'Virtuous Cycle' from Productivity Improvement to Wage Increase

Many companies face the issue that "we want to raise wages, but we don't have enough profit left."

Crucial here is the concept of "reinvesting the saved time into profit-generating work."

The seminar introduced a virtuous cycle model of "Productivity Improvement → Business Performance Improvement → Wage Increase." The focus on "how to create an organization that can give back to employees" rather than just simple cost-cutting attracted interest from many business owners and support companies.

## The Big Picture of Business Reform via 'Job-Op® x Claude'

Many companies that fail at AI implementation face the problem of "not being organized enough to know what to AI-ify."

Therefore, this seminar introduced an improvement approach that combines:

- "Job-Op®" for business inventory and visualization
- "Claude" for supporting work automation via AI

After organizing work into four categories:

- Continue, Compress, Transfer, Eliminate

Design the priority for AI application. This approach explains how to advance improvements at the practical level while preventing AI implementation failures such as not taking root on-site, not being used, or having no visible effect.

## How much can actually be saved?

The seminar also introduced an improvement simulation assuming a company with 30 employees.

As a result, impressive figures were shown:

- Monthly time saved: 116 hours
- Annual cost savings: approximately 4.17 million yen
- Reduction rate: 66%

## Offering 'Certification Courses' to Systematically Learn These Contents

Kyuyo Up Kenkyusho also offers an "AI HR Evaluation Consultant Certification Course" for those who wish to learn the seminar's content more practically.

While interest in generative AI is growing and "companies wanting to introduce AI" are increasing, there are not yet many people who can provide integrated support from business organization to AI utilization and HR evaluation systems. Therefore, Kyuyo Up Kenkyusho provides this "AI HR Evaluation Consultant Certification Course" to learn these contents practically.

In this certification course, aiming for a "level capable of making actual improvement proposals to companies" rather than just acquiring knowledge, it is possible to systematically learn the utilization of business inventory data, AI implementation support, HR evaluation system design, organizational improvement proposals, and system construction leading to wage increases, assuming actual proposals and implementation.

In fact, interest is growing from those wanting to "become able to propose business improvements utilizing AI," "expand the scope of corporate support combined with HR evaluation systems," and "become support providers chosen for 'proposal power' instead of price competition."