How AI is used in Marketing: Japan and the U.S.
Image Credit: Alexander Zas
Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized marketing globally. From enhancing personalization, to automating customer engagement, and even helping make data-driven decisions. Although the US and Japan have both adopted AI, they have very different approaches in how it has been implemented. This is due to various cultural, technological, legal, and consumer behaviors difference. To better understand how people are using AI, I have gone out and asked marketing professionals in the field, how they are using AI in the work they do. I will present some of the key points, provide an overview of the differences, and discuss why they are different. So lets dive into some AI marketing.
AI in the U.S.
1. Hyper-Personalization
Personalization is the use of data to target or retarget leads with a brand message that resonates with their demographics, interests, or customer behaviors. In the U.S., hyper-personalization and using consumer data is being increasingly used in the industry. From emails to content creation, to AI-powered search engines, AI helps understand audiences and create content that engages customers. That being said
Take Danielle Cordova a Social Media & Digital Marketing Specialist at Megapixall and ChamberSOUTH who had this to say about her experience with AI personalization.
“AI is transforming marketing in the U.S. by optimizing personalization, content creation, and customer engagement. In social media, AI-driven analytics help brands understand audience behavior, predict trends, and automate content strategies for maximum impact. While AI enhances efficiency, balancing automation with authentic human interaction remains key to building trust. As AI adoption grows globally, it will be interesting to see how cultural differences shape its role in marketing strategies across markets like Japan.”
2. Targeting
Targeting is the process of dividing consumers into segments, then find the audience within those segmentations that most aligns with your products. This is done so that we can locate the consumers that need our products, so we can develop promotional or marketing activities to those audiences. This can be tough in situations where data is unavailable or in limited access. Leveraging AI can help locate trends, identify the ideal clients, and even provide future growth analysis.
Santiago Martinez, Business Development Manager at RPL International and Member of the Board of Directors at ChamberSOUTH, has been leveraging this in his sales strategies to find his clients and hiring managers.
“I use LinkedIn Sales Navigator which is AI embedded, to help identify ideal clients and hiring managers based on job postings, industry trends, and company growth patterns. On the personalization front, I leverage ChatGPT to help me personalize cold emails or LinkedIn messages, based on a prospects company news, industry insights & hiring needs. Utilizing AI on a daily basis has helped me become a better sales person. With AI automation on my side, it’s easier for me to do my job and focus on bringing in new & more clients.”
AI in Japan
1. Language Models
In Japan there is also a widespread use of large language models (LLM) for consumers but also for many companies. On the consumer side APPs like TerraTalk or SpeakBuddy provide Japanese people a way to converse in English and get feedback. It can help to develop more natural pronunciation or ways of writing. From a company side, more and more companies have started to use in house LLMs. Foreign companies and Japanese companies both have utilize them to translate documents, reports, or communicate with foreign or domestic clients.
Patrick Puig-Corve Manager of Marketing Strategy for Turkey and Russia at Fujifilm had this to say about utilizing LLMs.
“During my time at Bosch and now at Fujifilm, we use AI language models to translate the nuances of a language to create meaningful reports for our company and our clients. Japanese can have degrees of formality and nuance which can often be difficult for even native speakers to write. AI allows me to hone in on the nuances of Japanese when writing my reports. My colleagues also use it but for English translations when they communicate with foreign clients.”
2. AI Customer Service and Assistants
Customer service and AI chatbots are another area in Japan that is seeing, arguably, the most amount of AI usage. Increasingly areas like convenience stores are making the shift into AI powered-cashier less payment systems. Hotels, international travel platforms, and even LINE are incorporating AI chatbots to help answer questions and are designed to deliver high quality service and hospitality based on Omotenashi. We have also see it being incorporated into customer service AI powered robots. SoftBank’s Penny robot is a great example of this. But it has also been utilized in the healthcare field.
Anthony Miyazaki Brand Strategist and Marketing Educator, has done extensive research on how AI robots are used in healthcare and help meet healthcare professional shortages.
“Cultural acceptance is the key to functional AI integration, especially in industries that require deep human interaction. For well over a decade, Japan has been innovative with respect to using AI-enabled robots as companions and assistants due to unmet demand for certain types of healthcare professionals, demonstrating how societal needs shape AI adoption. AI’s success isn’t just about technological capability—it’s about whether people trust it enough to let it into their lives. Similarly, in marketing, AI’s role in personalization and automation will only be as effective as consumers’ willingness to embrace it.”
Overview of Differences
U.S. AI Marketing | Japan AI Marketing | |
Main Focus | Personalization & automation | Customer experience & efficiency |
Data Usage | Aggressive data collection & predictive AI | More cautious data collection, legal privacy concerns |
Customer Service & Chatbots | AI chatbots for sales, customer service, and lead generation | AI chatbots maintain omotenashi (hospitality) in customer service and implemented in robotics. |
Retail & E-commerce | AI-optimized product recommendations (Amazon) | AI-driven in-store automation (ZozoTown, Seven Eleven, Rakuten) |
Advertising Strategy | Aggressive AI-driven real-time ad bidding | AI-assisted but traditional media (TV, billboards) still dominant |
Differences, Challenges, and Opportunities
In the U.S. AI has been integrated into major digital marketing and social media platforms like Google and Meta. The ability to be fast, flexible, and agile to make optimizations when running campaigns it is one of the reasons these platforms are so beloved. These also require lots of data to hone in on the right segment, audience, and message to deliver to get consumers to convert. Here lies a couple key differences.
As I have highlighted in other blog posts, privacy laws in Japan are very strict. Meaning Japan can’t necessarily collect as much data and have less to work with when trying to optimize campaigns. Similarly, Japanese companies also make collective decisions, which means lots of meetings and discussions. This can slow down the process or make it hard to make quick changes in a campaign which is something AI can also help with.
The pivot then comes into the customer service side. High-quality customer service is a core pillar of Japanese consumer behavior. Having genuine connections to build relationships and trust with a brand is t can make or break a brands image. But with a decreasing population filling jobs is becoming increasingly hard.
This is something in fact alluded to by Anthony in his research on AI in Japan. AI then becomes a tool that can fill in the customer service jobs allowing companies to incorporate more specialized labor for the roles AI can’t fill. It is why we see an increase push for AI powered cashier-less payment systems, and AI-powered robots in concierges or as assistants.
The question is then how this will affect how people feel about interacting with a brand. Anthony, Santiago, and Danielle have all talked about the difficulty and importance of human interaction and personalization in creating genuine relationships with their customers. Could AI then be a replacement for this and are consumers willing to accept it?
Returning to the U.S., data privacy laws are also a growing concern for consumers and for the government. As data becomes less and less accepted how will the U.S. change its marketing strategies? It may be able to also learn a lot from Japan in this regard.
I hope you enjoyed this content. If you would like to learn more about marketing in Japan follow me on social media, and sign up for my newsletter to get the latest updates.