KEY POINTSSmartNews creates AI Transformation Division to build company-wide AI infrastructure across business, product and engineeringNew unit develops an AI control plane covering development tools, work agents, authentication, access management and costsCompany-wide rollout includes tools such as Claude Code for workflow improvement and prototype creation
SmartNews establishes an AI Transformation Division to integrate AI into its operations. Note: Japanese text in the original image from press release has been translated into English by our editorial team.
SmartNews
SmartNews has established a new organizational unit, the AI Transformation Division, to reshape company operations around the use of artificial intelligence, the Japanese news app operator said on July 2.
The new division will sit within the company’s Business & Operations domain, which covers business, product and engineering functions. SmartNews said the unit will integrate those areas while building a company-wide foundation for AI use across operations, organizational management and product development.
The division’s core role is to develop a common AI infrastructure that allows all employees and business units to use AI safely and effectively. That includes streamlining AI-assisted development environments, standardizing shared systems such as work agents, and building what the company described as an AI control plane to manage authentication, access permissions and costs in an integrated way.
SmartNews also plans to put in place mechanisms to connect internal information and work tools securely with AI systems, with the stated aim of balancing faster adoption with operational safety.
The division is intended to support AI use not only by engineers and specialist roles, but across the full workforce, including non-engineering staff. SmartNews is rolling out AI tools including Claude Code across the company and preparing usage environments so employees can apply AI to their own work challenges, including process improvement and prototype creation.
SmartNews, founded on June 15, 2012, develops and operates the SmartNews news app in Japan and the United States. The company said it works with more than 3,000 media partners in Japan and overseas, and launched its first subscription service, SmartNews+, at the end of 2023.
Technology companies in Japan and elsewhere have been expanding internal AI deployment beyond software development to administrative and operational work, as broader access to generative AI tools increases pressure to raise productivity while maintaining governance and security.