TOKYO, March 6^th, 2019 - Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI), a leading provider of consulting services and system solutions, announced today that it will begin providing its new AI solution, Shingan in Japan. Shingan enables users to automatically extract Japanese data from multiple documents in different formats and relay it to a succeeding system. The solution was developed as a part of NRI’s Intelligent Process Automation (IPA) initiatives, aiming to upgrade and streamline operational processes with digital technologies such as AI and RPA.

In order to mitigate labor shortage and promote work-style reform in Japan, companies are increasingly using digital technologies to improve operational efficiency. RPA alone, however, has limited capabilities including an inability to handle either exceptions or information not in a compatible data format according to a recent NRI report.

As the Japanese meaning of Shingan suggests (shin means real and gan means eyes), Shingan solution identifies and extracts accurate information with precision by combining Japanese language processing technology and machine and deep learning. The combined technologies make it possible to format non-standardized data that may be processed by extracting proper nouns from natural language. With Shingan, users can allocate labor on more sophisticated tasks, and therefore a company can produce more value-added services.

NRI has already conducted proof of concept (POC) studies with Shingan at trust banks who tend to handle a vast volume of documents in different formats. With Nomura Asset Management Co., Ltd., NRI tested the consistency of extracted sentences from investment reports. The extraction of data and connection to a succeeding system was examined with NRI Process Innovation, Ltd. The results from the PoCs will be used to improve the capability of Shingan in the future. NRI plans to implement Shingan within 20 clients over the course of next 3 years.

“It’s important to note that IPA implementation combines the optimal characteristics of RPA and AI,” said Hiroyuki Nakayama, General Manager of NRI. “NRI’s aim is to continue the development of solutions such as Shingan that will enhance operational efficiency for not just financial institutions, but across various sectors in Japan.”

About NRI

NRI (Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.), founded in 1965, delivers innovative solutions to your problems by providing insight-driven research, consulting and managed services. Leveraging our expertise, NRI caters to a wide range of operational needs of the international financial services community to establish new industry standard service. NRI empowers clients with a team of 13,000 skilled professionals in more than 50 offices globally. For more information, visit https://www.nri.com/fit.