Over 60% Cannot Find Necessary Information: Automotive Industry Survey Reveals Challenges with Buried Internal Knowledge

Findy Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Yuichiro Yamada; hereinafter "the Company"), which provides an engineering platform, has conducted a survey on the challenges of new business development and product planning, as well as the actual status of AI utilization in the automotive industry. We are pleased to announce the results of this survey. This press release is the second in a series of three announcements regarding this survey.

Automotive Industry Fact-finding Survey (1): https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000234.000045379.html

Survey Results Summary

1. About 10% spend over 10 hours a week on information search and organization. More than half of the planning and development professionals in the automotive industry spend at least one hour a week searching for and organizing information. Furthermore, about 10% spend over 10 hours a week, highlighting the reality that these tasks are crowding out the creative work they should originally focus on.

2. Over 60% cannot find the necessary information and experience having to search again. The trend is more severe for middle management. Over 60% of all respondents answered that they could not reach the information they needed and had to re-examine what they had already looked up. The ratio was particularly high among section chiefs/managers and chief/leader classes, indicating that the burden of information search may be significant.

3. Buried internal knowledge. Minutes and past internal case studies are the top "missing information". Most of the information that tends to be lacking is not external data, but primary internal information such as "past internal case studies," "meeting minutes," and "email/chat history." It has become clear that while the accumulation of information is progressing, management cannot keep up, making it difficult to find the necessary information when needed.

Survey Overview

- Survey Method: Internet survey - Survey Period: Friday, March 6, 2026 – Tuesday, March 10, 2026 - Target Conditions: Distributed to men and women aged 20-69 nationwide. The following individuals were extracted: - Industry: Those working at automobile (completed vehicle) manufacturers, specialized R&D companies or advanced development bases belonging to their groups, and auto parts/components manufacturers. - Job Description: Those primarily or partially involved in new business development, product/service planning and development, R&D planning, IT/DX/AI promotion, product management, UX research/design, etc. - Sample Size: 226 samples - Survey Sponsor: Findy Inc. - Survey Conductor: Intage Inc. (*) Please note that this survey was not conducted targeting users of Findy Inc.

In the previous press release, we introduced the actual state of AI utilization among new business development and product planning personnel in the automotive industry. This time, we focused on the actual state of the "searching and summarizing" work of various information scattered within the company by those in charge of new business development and product planning in the automotive industry, clarifying the challenges.

About 10% spend over 10 hours a week on information search tasks

First, when asked how much time they spend per week "searching" for past survey results, customer voices, and internal documents in their own work, "1 to less than 3 hours" was the most common at 30.5%. This was followed by "30 minutes to less than 1 hour" at 22.1%, and "3 to less than 5 hours" at 17.3%. In addition, it was found that those who spend more than 10 hours a week (the sum of "10 to less than 15 hours" and "15 hours or more") account for just over 10% of the total.

Next, when asked how much time they spend "organizing and summarizing" past survey results, customer voices, and internal documents in their own work, "1 to less than 3 hours a week" was the most common at 32.7%. This is followed by "3 to less than 5 hours" at 18.6% and "30 minutes to less than 1 hour" at 16.4%. There is a tendency that "organizing and summarizing" takes slightly longer than the "searching for information" asked earlier. It was also found that those who spend more than 10 hours a week (the sum of "10 to less than 15 hours" and "15 hours or more") account for about 11% of the total.

Looking by job title, the time spent on "searching" and "organizing/summarizing" tends to be slightly shorter for the general manager class, while it tends to be slightly longer for the section chief/manager class and the chief/leader class. It also suggests that the burden of information search and organization/summarization is heavy among middle management.