“Sony’s greatest strength is its series of image sensors, and we believe that our position as the industry leader with the technology and expertise that we have cultivated over the years makes working on a project such as this a no brainer.“
Hello Yanagisawa Eita, thank you for joining us at the CIO Influence Interview Series. From your roles at Sony Electronics to your current position as a Sr. GM of the System Solutions Business Division at Sony Semiconductor Solutions, how have these diverse experiences shaped your leadership approach within the semiconductor industry?
Thank you for inviting me. I joined Sony in 2005 and have gotten to see many sides of our business.
At one point, I was given the chance to expand the customer base for the image sensor business in the U.S. for SSS which helped me approach my leadership with a lens to understand what our customers need and how our teams should collaborate across regions.
In addition, the evolution of Sony’s image sensor technology involves multifaceted areas such as AI, IoT, sensing, software, and cloud integration.
For me, having the opportunity to face and work with various global regions, unique companies, and markets beyond the existing technological areas, has been very significant in getting innovative ideas and passion to bring them to life.
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Could you share the core objectives and strategies driving the System Solutions Business Division and how they align with Sony Semiconductor Solutions’ vision for shaping the future of intelligent edge devices?
The mission of Sony Semiconductor Solutions is to “spark imaginations and enrich society through the power of technology.” As part of the company, the Systems Solutions Business Division has the ambition to empower organizations and communities with the possibilities that sensing technologies enable.
One way we’re working towards that is with our AITRIOS platform, which helps unlock the power of Sony’s various unique sensors to support a variety of industries. This is one of the primary ways we are faithful to our mission.
Sony Semiconductor Solutions is renowned for its imaging and sensing technologies. Could you shed light on how the System Solutions innovations impact industries and revolutionize user experiences?
Yes.
Sony has a long history of trailblazing technology that helps others spark imaginations and innovate in creative ways. Our unique image sensors within SSS are an important way we do this.
In order to realize a world where our partners have easy access to making the most of our sensors and come up with various effective solutions, we decided to come up with AITRIOS, our edge AI sensing platform. With AITRIOS, we’re bringing revolutions for partners and customers working on vision AI-based solutions for industries that include retail, logistics, factories, smart cities, and more.
For example, we just attended NRF: Retail’s Big Show, where our AITRIOS team showcased how our sensing technology and platform are being used to create better experiences for both shoppers and frontline workers.
With AITRIOS, we showed how near-real-time insights from our AITRIOS-enabled devices with IMX500 sensors can support tedious tasks like inventory counts and stocking efforts by simply notifying employees when assistance is needed, instead of requiring laps to identify areas manually, then heading to the warehouse to find the appropriate item.
We built a virtual, mock store of 150 SKUs in six weeks, showing AITRIOS combined with Generative AI that could be used to support the front and back of the house to optimize workflows and ensure that revenue isn’t lost because of low or missing stock on shelves.
How do semiconductors drive digital transformation for enterprises, and what opportunities do they present for CIOs aiming for digital innovation?
There is so much potential in how semiconductor technology can support enterprises. There is no end to the ways.
Sony’s image sensors exceed the capabilities of the human eye in certain areas, allowing instant access to data and recognition processed from the huge amount of vision information. In addition to smartphones and DSLRs, our image sensors are already used in industry, security, automotive, IoT, and other applications, making them indispensable key components for DX (digital transformation) in so many areas.
I will say, traditional vision AI and sensing technology, have usually been a challenge for digital transformation for many companies, due to the complexity of deployment and costs. This is why we created AITRIOS, to be a low-cost, effective way for enterprises to deploy image sensor technology and vision AI, at scale. We want to put more of the technology in organizations’ hands where the degree of access and adoption historically has not been because the ROI is there.
Which recent or upcoming innovations, products, or solutions from AITRIOS are poised to address market demands and customer needs?
We built and designed our AITRIOS platform intending to be adaptable and able to keep up with changing market and customer needs. Currently, many retailers are stunted by having low staff compared to what they need.
If AITRIOS can support a manager to automate ordering when stock is low in the warehouse or support an employee during a busy holiday weekend by notifying them when an area needs replenishment, it allows them to spend more time having valuable interactions with the customer and makes their roles easier in that environment.
These are just a couple of many use cases across many industries that we see coming into play across markets in the next year, that we’re able to help solve for, today.
Considering the challenges of intense competition and supply chain disruptions, how does Sony Semiconductor Solutions navigate these hurdles while maintaining innovation and market leadership?
Sony Semiconductor Solutions places great importance on dialogue with our customers and understanding market trends. Having a strong market position in the image sensor industry, which is based on the know-how that Sony has cultivated up to now, we can identify needs and market trends ahead of time, work on R&D to develop technologies to meet them, and provide the right products to customers ahead of time.
We designed AITRIOS to sustainably solve customers’ issues and make wishes come true by providing software that can add value to Sony’s image sensors. This will become a part of the recurring profit model that Sony is aiming for in its medium- to long-term business strategy.
Sony’s greatest strength is its series of image sensors, and we believe that our position as the industry leader with the technology and expertise that we have cultivated over the years makes working on a project such as this a no-brainer.
I believe SSS’s diversification of semiconductor technology and applications benefits us, as we are able to connect a product, organization, or industry with the right sensor to match their needs. That level of customization takes someone’s experience to new heights.
Sony Semiconductor Solutions is integrating AI into its technologies. Could you elaborate on how AI transforms edge devices, predictive maintenance, and personalized user experiences within your system solutions?
Of course. I think our IMX500 intelligent vision sensor and AITRIOS platform are the perfect examples to answer your question.
Our IMX500 is the world’s first image sensor with AI processing functionality, meaning it can run AI algorithms directly on the sensor, instead of transferring data to the cloud to processing, and then storage. It supports organizations in keeping their cloud and storage lean and organized, sensing and transmitting only the data that they need to improve their business—all while addressing privacy.
AITRIOS is our platform to help unlock the full possibility of IMX500-enabled devices. Together, AITRIOS maximizes IMX500 by creating retrainable devices that can be managed, deployed, and analyzed from a single platform. This way, partners’ businesses can be empowered by edge AI sensing technology in a way that’s never been easier to deploy and scale.
Given your experience, what advice would you offer CIOs seeking to strategically adopt emerging semiconductor technologies, especially within system solutions, to stay ahead in their respective industries?
It’s been a long time since the semiconductor became a core device that has a significant impact on the competitive environment in various industries. There is no doubt that the speed of this technological evolution and its impact on businesses will continue to increase in the future.
Under such an environment, expectations for CIOs who can lead their companies into the digitalized future are higher than ever.
To meet these expectations, CIOS must have the perspective of not only riding on the wave of change but creating its wave by itself.
Solution services are evaluated on a relative basis, while technology is evaluated on an absolute basis. In the current market environment, it is difficult for a single company to take charge of the technological evolution that supports digitalization. I believe that finding and collaborating with the best solution partners who are open to semiconductor technologies and having continuous dialogue will be the seed for the next innovation and become opportunity to create a wave of change.
We, too, will continue to evolve AITRIOS so that we can support and be recognized by the world leaders and CIOs who are trying to lead DX.
From your leadership journey at Sony Semiconductor Solutions, what crucial lessons have you learned that could assist CIOs in propelling innovation and technological advancement within their organizations?
The importance of being accepting of diversity and listening to different views is something I learned at Sony. I believe this is an important attitude for all leaders, not just CIOs.
Innovation is often born from a diverse organization and a clash of different opinions and views. Especially in this era of rapid environmental change, it is difficult to go beyond our current position if we keep bouncing the same ideas off the same members.
Experts from a variety of fields are involved in developing AITRIOS, and diversity is indispensable to realize AITRIOS which are expected to add more value to the image sensors with AI and sensing functionality.
I believe that the role of leaders including CIOs is to tolerate diversity and different views and to transform changes and conflicts that arise from diversity to the revitalization of the organization and its future growth.
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Thank you, Eita That was fun and we hope to see you back on the CIO Influence Interview Series soon.
[To participate in our interview series, please write to us at sghosh@martechseries.com]
