JapanRetail and e-commerce2025 – ongoingITOCHU Corporation
Generative AI for plastics-material selection and sales proposals
ITOCHU used generative AI to recommend plastics materials during customer discussions
Problem
Selecting materials for manufacturing customers depended on individual salespeople's experience. Technical specifications varied across suppliers and covered many products.
Approach
ITOCHU applied its internal generative AI system to product specification documents and supplier inventory information. Staff could calculate costs and delivery lead times while discussing customer requirements. The company said it was extending the workflow as a template for other trading businesses.
Results
No published figures
Takeaway
The workflow connected technical product knowledge with commercial information used during negotiations. ITOCHU did not disclose a measured sales increase or time reduction for this application.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Business function
- Marketing and sales
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Built in-house
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
ITOCHU described an operating plastics-material search and proposal application in its investor presentation. It explained how specifications, inventory and trade-related costs supported product recommendations during customer discussions.
Full details are in the original sources.
