Fujitsu Showcases AI Platform and International Focus

PAC recently attended a Fujitsu customer event in Spain to witness the launch of a new AI platform, and to get a better understanding of how the Japanese giant’s international operations are playing an increasingly important role in its R&D efforts.  

Fujitsu CTO Vivek Mahajan unveiled the company’s new AI platform, code-named “Fujitsu Kozuchi,” which is designed to bring together Fujitsu’s different proprietary and third party tools AI-related tools and assets in areas such as automated machine learning model generation (AutoML) and Fujitsu AI Ethics for Fairness for testing the fairness of AI models.

Other key components include Fujitsu’s AI for causal discovery and Fujitsu Wide Learning to simulate scientific discovery processes, as well as access to open-source software and AI technologies from partner companies. This is an important point: Mahajan states that no single AI platform will dominate the market in the way that, for example, SAP has historically bossed the ERP market. Therefore, ensuring that it can work alongside third-party tools and platforms will be vital.  

Mahajan also observes that clients and prospects are more interested in specific use cases and solutions for AI rather than the underlying platform. He cited user research that found that just 19% of companies that are interested in AI have been so far able to use it in production. A key part of the Kozuchi proposition is that it will provide organizations with the ability to accelerate how they build, test and validate new AI-based services. 

Fujitsu has more than 6,000 projects under its belt that have incorporated an element of artificial intelligence, and highlighted some of the more interesting ones at the event. These include a project to apply AI to optimizing the medical diagnosis process for patients to provide early diagnosis of genetic disease, and support the development of personalized treatment plans.

The company has also applied AI to more than 70 cameras at the Nurburgring race track to identify and alert drivers to potential dangers and incidents in real time. Fraud management has emerged as one of the most mature use cases for AI and Fujitsu has worked with a leading financial information provider in Spain to leverage an explainable AI and predictive analytics solution to continuously monitor and audit fraud and risk. 

Fujitsu has now been present in Spain for 50 years and the country remains one of Fujitsu’s key territories in Europe. The vendor recently secured a €14m deal to supply a quantum and high-performance computer to the Galician Supercomputing Center (CESGA) in the North-West of the country. Earlier this month, it also announced a tie-up with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center to collaborate on applying AI to clinical data in order to improve disease detection. 

The company’s recent initiatives in Spain are emblematic of its wider progress on the international front, which is now benefiting from a more decentralized approach to the company’s research and development efforts. While Japan remains a vital R&D engine for Fujitsu, it now has teams in both Europe and North America taking the lead on aspects such as AI ethics solutions and frameworks and the development of solutions in areas such as field services optimization. 

Fujitsu has been ramping up its investment outside of its domestic region for the last five years, culminating in the €430m acquisition of German retail software group GK earlier this year. The company has sometimes struggled to leverage its domestically-developed IP in international markets, so giving more creative power to its regional operations will help it to stay better in tune with global customer needs.

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