SMBC and Fujitsu Join Forces to Offer AI-Powered Forecasting Services

SMBC and Fujitsu partner on AI-powered data analytics business

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The partnership comes after a joint project team formed by the two companies in 2024 conducted a survey of customer needs and discovered that various industries - including manufacturing, wholesale, and retail - want to move away from decision-making based on individual experience and promote data-driven operations to improve efficiency, and enhance management decision-making. To meet these needs, the two companies will combine SMBC's industry knowledge and data science analysis expertise with Fujitsu's AI demand forecasting. Between them, they say they can boost management decision-making, and support the optimisation of customers' product ordering volumes, personnel allocation, and logistics planning.

SMBC and Fujitsu to partner on AI-driven forecasting services

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking is tapping Fujitsu's artificial intelligence models to bolster its advisory services for customers grappling with rising wages and materials costs. The banking arm of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is in talks to provide corporate client data to Fujitsu to run through the IT company's multimodal machine learning tools to make business forecasts, according to people familiar with the matter. The AI-inferred demand predictions would help some of the bank's biggest customers make key decisions from staffing to procurement to capital spending and financing, the people said, asking not to be named discussing nonpublic information. The two companies will soon sign a basic agreement, they said. The move would be a rare instance of a Japanese bank allowing another company access to sensitive customer data, such as store-by-store visitor and sales numbers. Corporate Japan is fighting labor shortages in a rapidly aging society as well as high materials prices from a depressed yen. Representatives of SMBC and Fujitsu declined to comment. For Fujitsu, the tie-up is a validation of a forecasting model central to its ambitions to expand in the lucrative AI and consulting arenas. The company, which has sold its chip packaging subsidiary Shinko Electric Industries and divested its stake in air-conditioning unit Fujitsu General, is undertaking a yearslong shift away from hardware.

Sumitomo Mitsui and Fujitsu collaborate on AI forecasting services - Bloomberg By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is planning to utilize Fujitsu Ltd. (TYO:6702)'s artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to enhance its advisory services, according to Bloomberg, citing sources familiar with the matter. The bank aims to assist clients dealing with increasing wages and materials expenses. The banking division of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (NYSE:SMFG) Inc. is reportedly discussing the possibility of providing corporate customer data to Fujitsu. The data would be processed using Fujitsu's multimodal machine learning tools to generate business forecasts, according to the sources. The AI-based demand predictions are expected to aid some of the bank's largest clients in making critical decisions. These decisions range from staffing and procurement to capital expenditure and financing. The sources, who chose to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the information, stated that the two companies are on the verge of signing a basic agreement.