Will AI cook Japan to perfection!? AICO's Work 2

The AI Copywriter Project (commonly known as AICO), initiated by Hiroyuki Fukuda and Fujinari Tsutsumi of Dentsu Inc. and Professor Yoshinobu Kano of Shizuoka University, has evolved. It now includes MAI, developed to provide AI-driven marketing support. Operating as "AI Planners MAI & AICO," the project continues to grow with many members joining from within and outside Dentsu Inc. and Dentsu Digital Inc.

AICO, the AI copywriter that caused a stir last year in 2016 by placing newspaper ads featuring AI-written copy on "Newspaper Advertising Day," is back with an even more powerful campaign for Fuji Sankei Business i's "Newspaper Advertising Day" initiative.

AICO's second-year "Newspaper Advertising Day" project features collaborations with finance, fashion, and an NPO!

This marks the second year of Fuji Sankei Business i's AI initiative. This year's theme is "Fuji Sankei Business i: Co-creation by People and AI." Symbolizing the future of newspaper advertising, we launched the campaign under the banner "Fuji Sankei Business AI," even changing the title font.

While the previous article "The Sexy Side of Newspaper Advertising Awaits" garnered attention within the newspaper industry, discussions among the project team, Dentsu Inc. Media Services / Newspaper Division, and newspaper publishers led to the conclusion that this year's initiative should go beyond simply "using AICO to write copy." Instead, it was crucial to push AICO's core concept of "co-creation between humans and AI" into actual client applications and challenge ourselves with a feature-based approach.

As a result, diverse collaborations were realized with three entities: "J.Score," which offers AI-powered scoring and lending services; "ISETAN THE JAPAN STORE," celebrating its first anniversary this year in the fashion industry; and "Homedoor," a certified NPO supporting employment for the homeless. Let's take a look at each one.

AI Takes on Financial Copywriting!? The AICO × J.Score Case

J.Score, who volunteered for this project, provides an "AI Score Lending" service. Users answer chat-style questions to generate an "AI Score" that quantifies their potential and creditworthiness, enabling them to receive loans with interest rates and credit limits based on that score.

While their previous campaign used the tagline "AI Score Lending, Now Available," this newspaper ad project employed AICO to generate a large volume of copy using keywords like "money" and "fintech."

From the copy proposed by AICO, the robust message "That investment nurtures dreams"—closest to the client's business—was selected, giving birth to the actual advertisement.

Members who actually used AICO to create J.Score's ad stated, "This was our first time writing copy with AICO, and we were surprised by how solid the copy turned out—far better than expected." This gave us a tangible sense of promise for future AI applications in this field.

AICO Takes on Fashion Advertising!?

Next, we present a case where AICO tackled fashion advertising, contrasting with financial copywriting and requiring a more intuitive sense of style. AICO was utilized for fashion ads aligned with ISETAN THE JAPAN STORE's first-anniversary branding.

The initial concept for ISETAN THE JAPAN STORE's first-anniversary ad was "New Wonder." As a concept store established in Malaysia to showcase Cool Japan globally, we thought a collaboration with AICO, representing Japanese technology, would be a good fit. For producing the first-anniversary brand book and posters, numerous outtakes existed from the photo shoot. We fed these visuals into AICO with the keyword "Japan" to generate a large volume of copy.

Over 20 pieces like these were created and published on Sankei.Biz.

Furthermore, while reviewing large volumes of AICO copy automatically incorporating Japan-related keywords like "Asia," "economic downturn," and "world," the idea evolved: Couldn't these copies be linked to create a single body copy or message? Thus, this newspaper draft was born: presenting the original ISETAN THE JAPAN STORE ad alongside a contrasting message—a body copy-like text collaboratively written by AICO.

No need for the world's best.
(Maybe Japan doesn't need to aim for "world's best" anymore?)

Let's stop running away, Japan.
(Let's stop turning away from the reality we don't want to see and face Japan as it is now)

Economic downturns are tests.
(Even adversities like the declining birthrate and aging population, or "economic downturns," might be opportunities.)

Why is the relationship with Europe and America so chaotic?
(Even if major powers like Europe and America move dynamically)

Asian nations are the hair.
(By connecting with nearby Asian nations, we might be saved by the gods (?) of hair)

Japan is coming to a boil.
(Now, let Japan's charm rise up in its own way)

※The text in parentheses is a human copywriter's wild interpretation, inspired by AICO's copy.

I thought that precisely because this copy was written by AI, it creates space for diverse interpretations by the audience, sparking imagination and offering a new way to enjoy it.

AI Supporting Human Employment!? NPO Homedoor

Finally, as an ongoing project example, we'll introduce our collaboration with the NPO Homedoor (http://www.homedoor.org), which supports homeless individuals.

Recently, discussions about AI often revolve around whether human jobs will be replaced by AI, leaving people unemployed. Our team debated what AI Planners MAI & AICO could do about this situation. This led to the idea of exploring whether AI could support human employment, as an antithesis to the narrative of AI taking jobs.

Homedoor's Chairperson, Kana Kawaguchi, encountered homelessness issues at age 14 and founded the NPO at 19. Since then, based in Osaka City, she has provided employment support to over 160 homeless individuals and welfare recipients, and living support to over 600 people. She also runs a bicycle repair business to create jobs.

Thus, the AI Planners MAI & AICO project began collaborating with Homedoor in July 2017, launching an unprecedented initiative: "AI working to support the creation of human jobs." Learning that Homedoor had been running listing ads (ads displayed in search engine results) to raise awareness about homelessness, solicit donations from companies and individuals, and promote "HUBchari" – a shared bicycle service where homeless individuals perform repairs – the discussion turned to whether AICO could improve the click-through rate by crafting the ad copy.

First, AICO generated approximately 3,000 copy variations based on keywords like "homeless," "welfare," and "bicycle." From these, 50 were selected. Homeless individuals were then asked to vote, and the most popular copy was chosen.

Furthermore, we are currently running listing ads using these copy lines. Moving forward, we will analyze the copy with the highest click-through rates while repeatedly refining keyword selection based on feedback from homeless individuals. This PDCA cycle enables us to generate increasingly effective copy.

We are actually running copy generated by AICO in listing ads and conducting monthly PDCA cycles to improve click-through rates and inquiry numbers. In fact, results from August to October 2017 show that while the overall difference was slight, AICO's copy performed better. For certain service categories, it achieved click-through rates up to 1.4 times higher than human-written copy. Building on these results, we aim to further enhance performance.

AICO's Year of Growth Reveals a Future of AI and Human Co-Creation

Regarding the topic of "AI and Newspapers," as seen in this case, various initiatives have been undertaken, such as Nikkei's automated earnings article generation and the AI reporter project implemented by Chubu Keizai Shimbun for its 70th anniversary (https://dentsu-ho.com/articles/4875). Reflecting on this initiative, the project members feel confident that by continuing AI development leveraging our relationships with media, we can create solutions utilizing AI technology unique to Dentsu Inc. Beyond the case introduced here, this project is expanding in various directions, including efforts in lyric generation and exploring potential applications in the promotion domain.

Development of MAI & AICO continues today with the support of many copywriters and planners. As an internal beta version, over 200 members are already testing it and providing ongoing feedback. Additionally, MAI, the marketing AI following AICO, continues development toward its practical debut. We would like to express our sincere gratitude once again to everyone contributing to this project. We hope opportunities to serve society will continue to expand, and we ask for your continued support of AICO and MAI.