• News

Supports transformation and creation of commerce-related businesses in anticipation of
mid- to long-term changes in shopping

Tokyo—October 2, 2026—Hakuhodo Inc., a leading integrated marketing and innovation company headquartered in Tokyo, is pleased to announce the launch of a business structure transformation consulting service in anticipation of the full-scale spread of agentic commerce, in which AI agents select, complete payment and purchase products on behalf of sei-katsu-sha (our term for the holistic person). The service will be offered as part of Agentic Commerce ONE™, a suite of solutions that provides one-stop support from strategy development to implementation and operations, within the Hakuhodo DY Group.

The service, an undertaking of HCAI Professionals, the Hakuhodo DY Group’s cross-Group collective of AI specialists, goes beyond simple AI optimization (AIO) and temporary promotional measures. It comprehensively supports companies from management, operations, supply chain and organizational perspectives, with companywide strategies that ensure products continue to be selected in the AI agent age, and long-term business transformation schemes that backcast from future shopping behavior change scenarios.

• Background to service development: The advent of an age in which AI acts as a proxy for purchasing
  Alongside the dramatic evolution of generative AI and AI agents, e-commerce and sei-katsu-sha’s purchasing behaviors are beginning to shift from a style in which people search for, select and purchase by themselves, to an age in which AI automatically determines the optimal choice and purchases on their behalf (semi-automated and fully-automated purchasing). It is not possible to build business structures that ensure continued selection by AI agents with existing AIO (information organization and data enrichment for AI) alone. Companies urgently need to plan strategies that ensure their products and services will be selected by AI agents, and transform their business structures to respond to changes in future purchasing scenarios as a result of advances in technology.
• Specific support provided by the consulting service
  The service provides integrated support through backcasting, from medium-term (3–5 years) strategies (“winning formulas”) that anticipate a future of shopping transformed by agentic commerce, to long-term (beyond 5 years) future business transformation.

(1) Medium-term (3–5 years): Planning strategies that support agentic commerce and building implementation schemes

Formulating grand designs and business, work, data and customer experience transformation plans to ensure a company’s brand will be selected and continue to be purchased in an AI agent environment.

• Drawing up of grand designs that cross AI and shopping
  Envision product marketing, promotion, sales and distribution overall under an AI agentic environment.
• Formulation of AI agent strategies
  Determine whether the company will have proprietary AI agents, define data to be provided to/shared with platform owners’ AI, and create support flows for distribution/logistics.
• Organization of customer data collection schemes
  Formulate policies and build proprietary platforms for obtaining data that accurately captures sei-katsu-sha’s purchase histories, interests, preferences and lifestyles for sharing with AI.
• Formulation of plans for supply chain transformation
  Draw up transformation plans for rapid receiving systems, payment, loyalty point utilization, inventory and delivery coordination to support instant and automated ordering by AI.
• Formulation of schemes for internal organizational transformation and centers of excellence
  Design specialized organizations (centers of excellence) for advancing agentic commerce across a company and define their missions.
• Simulation of return on investment
  Estimate costs required for implementation and expected return (pattern-based ROI) and provide quantitative data to enable management decision-making.

(2) Long-term (beyond 5 years): Long-term business transformation schemes based on shopping scenario changes

Predicting future changes in shopping at the intersection of social change and technological advancement and developing a long-term business transformation plan.

• Establishment of future shopping scenarios
  Create shopping experience scenarios triggered by social, economic, value and technological changes, including purchase criteria (customization, consideration for the environment), purchase method (virtual + sensory experiences, real-time linkage of emotions and physical condition), and delivery (driving automation, drones).
• Business impact evaluation and formulation of business transformation plans
  Evaluate impact (risks and opportunities) of each scenario on the company’s business and conceptualize new business models and new services that should remain in 5–10 years’ time.
• Formulation of backcasting implementation plan
  Working back from the future end point (backcasting), decide plans for R&D, proof-of-concept testing and partnerships that should be commenced each year going forward.

About Agentic Commerce ONE™
Agentic Commerce ONE™ is an integrated suite of solutions for next-generation commerce provided by the Hakuhodo DY Group. The solutions anticipate an age in which AI autonomously acts on behalf of sei-katsu-sha, handling search, comparison and payment. Agentic Commerce ONE™ provides end-to-end support, from strategy development and brand experience design, to the development of data infrastructure compatible with the AI age, as well as implementation and operation.

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