OpenAI and SoftBank announce partnership to develop AI agents for Japanese companies

OpenAI and the SoftBank Group are going to team up in order to develop AI agents in a way that is customized specifically for each company.

This advanced enterprise AI computing platform is called ‘Cristal Intelligence’ and is said to integrate the systems and data of individual companies to help them to be more efficient and create new business opportunities.

The idea is that AI agents can automate tasks, such as creating financial reports, writing technical manuals, or handling queries from customer support. The goal is to empower professionals so they can spend more time on creativity and strategic decision-making.

By deploying Cristal Intelligence, OpenAI and the SoftBank Group want to accelerate the development and adoption of AI agents. To achieve this, SoftBank is annually spending $3 billion to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies.

“OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp., Arm and SoftBank Corp. share a vision to enable AI agents to help make every knowledge worker more effective and solve even more complex problems. With Cristal intelligence, these AI agents will lay the groundwork for even more advanced systems that can learn and adapt to any enterprise’s needs,” the companies state in a press release that announces the joint venture.

OpenAI is providing the AI technology, while SoftBank is delivering Cristal Intelligence with the help of its subsidiary Arm. SoftBank plans to automate over a hundred million workflows by using its computing platform.

This joint venture company will be called ‘SB OpenAI Japan’ and will be 50:50 owned by OpenAI and SoftBank. Cristal Intelligence will exclusively be available to major companies in Japan to enable them to build AI agents that are fully integrated within their own IT systems. The training of these AI agents will happen in a secure environment on the servers of Japan-based AI data centers.

“This partnership with SoftBank will accelerate our vision for bringing transformative AI to some of the world’s most influential companies, starting with Japan,” CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman says in a statement.

Chairman and CEO of Softbank Group Masayoshi Son adds that his company “is fully committed to leveraging the new products across our entire organization and utilize our great partnership with OpenAI to drive the AI Revolution forward.”