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LINE Yahoo! is expanding its internal AI development efforts by scaling up the ‘AI Agent Prototyping Task Force,’ an initiative created to accelerate new features for its AI assistant, Agent i. After the first round produced 26 working prototypes and several projects moved toward commercial implementation, the company has increased the total reward pool for the second phase to around 50 million yen.
Earlier this year, the task force was unveiled as a company-wide program, which basically lets employees join even if they are in any department or have their usual day to day duties. The team folks can put aside roughly 20% of their work time to work on fresh AI concepts, which in turn helps spark inventive synergy across multiple business units while also building up AI know-how across the wider organization.
Agent i, launched in April through the integration of Yahoo! JAPAN AI Assistant and LINE AI, is expected to play a central role in LINE Yahoo!’s broader AI strategy. The company plans to hook the platform with more of its current services over time, kind of gradually.
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In the first round, projects across things like scheduling, finance, weather, real estate, and recruitment ended up at the prototype stage, eventually. Nine then moved on to the finals, and the AI-powered “Schedule Coordination” project took the main prize. Several of these projects are now being prepared for official release between June and September 2026.
For the second round, LINE Yahoo! has not only increased the overall reward budget but also introduced a fixed monthly incentive of 50,000 yen for participating members. The move reflects the company’s push to speed up AI-driven innovation while encouraging employees across the organization to contribute to the future development of Agent i.
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