Kura Sushi is Japan’s largest sellers of tuna by volume.

To procure stock, the sushi chain’s skilled artisans traveled abroad, using expert judgment to directly evaluate the quality of tuna for purchase.

However, travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for artisans to evaluate and purchase on-site as they had before.

To ensure that it could continue delivering delicious tuna to consumers amid these supply threats, Kura Sushi adopted a technology developed by our agency, seeking to overturn industry conventions with a new AI-driven approach to purchasing.

We developed TUNA SCOPE, the world's first AI capable of discerning tuna quality with the eye of a skilled Japanese artisan.

We focused on the fact that these artisans determine tuna quality by inspecting tail cross-sections, using judgment honed through more than a decade of training. However, such specialized skills are based on human intuition and experience, a 'tacit knowledge' that even the artisans themselves cannot convey in words. This makes the skills difficult to pass on, and the number of trainees continues to decline.

Our solution utilized the characteristics of deep learning in what became the world's first AI to successfully acquire professional judgment. We began the project in 2017 and in 2019 launched TUNA SCOPE in the form of a smartphone app, which makes the quality-evaluation expertise of Japanese artisans available on-demand and simultaneously anywhere in the world.

Working with Kura Sushi, we sent the TUNA SCOPE data to Dalian, China, to set up a new form of purchasing that doesn't require artisans to travel.

The adoption of TUNA SCOPE made operations more stable and streamlined, eliminating human error and fatigue.

Our system also makes it possible to improve the speed of evaluation by simply increasing the number of smartphones.

While achieving a digital transformation of the fisheries industry, we also hoped that TUNA SCOPE would gain global attention as a groundbreaking solution that turned COVID-related disruption into an opportunity.

We attempted the world's first AI-driven remote purchasing, and succeeded in procuring several hundred tons of tuna far faster than was previously possible.

In July 2020, TUNA SCOPE's AI-driven purchasing was unveiled as ‘a new approach’ to overcoming pandemic-related supply disruptions. Tuna selected by the AI as the highest quality stock from among several hundred tons was also released as a new product, ‘AI Tuna’, sold at 461 Kura Sushi stores around Japan. We conducted a launch campaign that included TV commercials, and the product remains on sale as of March 2021.

We are also developing the AI-driven judgment as a global quality standard.

TUNA SCOPE Certified products are being marketed around the world, including New York and Singapore.

Despite the pandemic, AI Tuna achieved three times the forecast sales. The initiative has become a global sensation, covered by over 1,500 media outlets in 57 countries as an innovation that will transform the fisheries industry beyond the current pandemic.

TUNA SCOPE has also been selected to receive assistance from the Japanese Fisheries Agency. With government support, we are expanding our efforts to tackle the new challenge of tuna stock depletion.

At present, the global tuna business mostly trades on the basis of weight.

This prioritization of quantity at the expense of quality leads to rampant overfishing that damages tuna stocks.

In promoting 'quality' as the trading criteria, TUNA SCOPE has the potential to curb overfishing by shift business standards away from the focus on quantity.

By tackling skills and resource challenges, we hope to create a society where everyone can enjoy delicious tuna into the future.