Why Century-Old Companies Hold an Edge in the AI Era: 'AI Data Platform' Adopted by Steel and Construction Industry Firms

AI Data Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO Takahito Sasaki; hereinafter 'AI Data') announces that its enterprise intelligence platform, 'AI Data Platform' designed for century-old companies, has been adopted by long-established firms in the steel and construction industries. Initial deployment will begin in intellectual property departments, with plans to expand to multiple departments in the coming years.

This platform integrates Tokkyo.Ai, LegalTech VDR, and AI Kongo on IDX, transforming decades of accumulated field data, intellectual property, and technical information into an enterprise intelligence foundation usable by AI.

The decisive factor in adoption was the platform’s design philosophy: using Tokkyo.Ai’s agent functionality to conduct competitor technology analysis, and leveraging internal invention notes and long-accumulated company data with AI Kongo on IDX to conceptualize business expansion and strategic planning. This approach enables century-old firms to utilize 100 years of real-world operational data to build competitive advantages and entry barriers in the AI era—what we call the MOAT strategy.

With the widespread adoption of generative AI, many companies are now implementing AI solutions. However, competition in the AI era is not merely about AI development. What is about to intensify is the competition over real-world data.

And among all players, Japanese century-old companies hold the greatest potential in this race.

AI Can Be Bought. But Field Data Cannot.

Today, technologies such as generative AI, LLMs, RAG, and AI agents are rapidly evolving.

These technologies are increasingly likely to become commoditized.

In other words, AI itself will become something that can be purchased. However, field data accumulated over 100 years cannot be bought.

The following assets, accumulated through decades of business operations:

- Design drawings

- Technical documents

- Construction histories

- Manufacturing records

- Quality control data

- Customer service logs

- Failure cases

- Improvement histories

- Tacit knowledge from skilled technicians

are unique corporate assets that cannot be replicated in a short period. These are the ultimate weapons available only to century-old companies.

What Startups Lack

Startups excel in:

- Speed

- Technical expertise

- Fundraising ability

- AI utilization capability

On the other hand,

century-old companies possess:

- Vast field data

- Trust-based customer relationships

- Accumulated technical expertise

- Histories of failures and improvements

- Industry-specific know-how

In the AI era, what matters is not whether a company owns AI, but whether it possesses valuable data worth training AI on.

The AI Race Is Becoming a Real-World Data Race

AI’s value depends on the quality of the data it learns from. AI trained on general internet information produces generic answers. However, AI trained on proprietary, real-world enterprise data can generate insights that only that company can produce.

Therefore, competitiveness in the AI era depends not only on model performance, but also on:

- Real-world data owned by the company

- Company-specific knowledge

- Organizational decision-making know-how

The future of AI competition will shift from AI development to real-world data competition.

Century-Old Companies Possess Dormant AI Assets

In many century-old companies, valuable knowledge exists internally.

However, in reality, this knowledge is scattered across:

- SharePoint

- NAS

- File servers

- Personal PCs

- Emails

- Paper documents

- Meeting minutes

- Reports

and is not in a state usable by AI.

The problem is not the absence of data, but the fact that data is not in a usable state.

AI Data’s AI Data Platform is an enterprise intelligence foundation designed to solve this challenge.

The Role of AI Data Platform

'AI Data Platform' integrates:

- Tokkyo.Ai

- LegalTech VDR

- AI Kongo on IDX

It is an AI utilization foundation tailored for century-old companies. Its role goes beyond mere data storage or AI chat. It recovers dormant real-world data within the company, securely manages it, prepares it for AI learning, and transforms it into new initiatives, technologies, intellectual property, and revenue streams.

LegalTech VDR

A secure data vault for safeguarding and managing critical corporate data

AI Kongo on IDX

An organizational intelligence OS that integrates dispersed internal knowledge and enables enterprise-wide learning

Tokkyo.Ai

An AI-powered IP strategist that analyzes corporate technical assets and connects them to new inventions, patents, and IP strategies

The Century-Old Company’s Counterattack Strategy

Until now, the AI era has been considered favorable to startups and tech firms.

However, we believe the opposite is possible. The companies best positioned for advantage in the AI era are those with 100 years of real-world data.

AI creates the future. But the materials to create that future lie within the field data accumulated by companies over the past century. When a century-old company transforms its internal data and expertise into AI-usable assets, it gains a powerful competitive edge that startups cannot replicate.

Future Outlook

AI Data will continue expanding the AI Data Platform to century-old companies in construction, manufacturing, materials, machinery, food, trading, and infrastructure—industries that have long accumulated technical expertise and field data.

It’s not just about adopting AI. It’s about transforming a company’s real-world data into AI assets.

This is the first step toward building the next 100 years for century-old enterprises.

Message

The era when AI can be bought is upon us. But 100 years of field data cannot be bought.

Japanese century-old companies possess world-class technology, on-site expertise, quality, trust, and know-how.

If these assets can be transformed into AI-usable forms, Japanese companies can achieve significant growth once again in the AI era. AI Data Inc. will support the awakening of dormant assets within Japan’s century-old companies through the AI Data Platform, helping them build competitive advantages for the next 100 years.

About AI Data Inc.

Name: AI Data Inc.

Established: April 2015

Capital: 100 million JPY (capital reserve: 1.525 billion JPY)

President and CEO: Takahito Sasaki

Headquarters: 4F Metro City Kamiyacho Building, 5-1-5 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo

URL: https://www.aidata.co.jp/

AI Data has been protecting and utilizing data assets for enterprises and individuals for over 20 years, based on data and intellectual property infrastructure. Trusted by over 10,000 companies and more than 1 million customers, its 'Data Ecosystem Business'—covering data sharing, backup, recovery, migration, and deletion—has won the BCN Award for top sales volume for 17 consecutive years. In data infrastructure, it provides IDX cloud data management and recovery services, and has earned high recognition in the legal field through forensic investigations and evidence disclosure services that received the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award.

On the intellectual property infrastructure side, through its group company, it offers patent search and application support systems.