01

What AI Means for Hakuhodo

AI is not a tool. It is an extension of Sei-katsu-sha Hasso — a weapon only Hakuhodo can build.

CORE PHILOSOPHY

Sei-katsu-sha × AI

Any agency can adopt AI. Only HIT can build a Sei-katsu-sha AI.

Consumer ≠ Sei-katsu-sha

Consumer — A buyer performing an economic function.
Sei-katsu-sha — A living, breathing human full of contradictions.

For over 40 years, Hakuhodo has seen people not as “buyers” but as “living people.” Emotions, context, contradictions, irrational preferences in everyday life.

By embedding this Sei-katsu-sha thinking into AI, we create an AI with a depth of human understanding that no competitor can match.

Traditional Approach

Data → Segment → Target. Demographics and behavior only. Misses the human “mess” — contradictions, emotions, irrational preferences.

Virtual Sei-katsu-sha

AI personas with human contradictions built in. Hypothesis generation before research. Instant validation at scale.

Tools make you faster.

This makes you
a different kind of agency.

Before: a limited loop. The same five people. The same room. The same blindspots.

Now: every idea can be pressure-tested against 1,000 consumers before lunch.
AI LANDSCAPE 2026

Three Platforms, Three Strategies

OpenAI / ChatGPT
900M

The Swiss Army Knife

Weekly active users (Q1 2026). Consumer platform play: scale, monetize, dominate.

Google / Gemini
750M

The Library

Monthly active users (Q1 2026). Integrated into Gmail, Docs, Maps. 1M+ token context. The ecosystem play.

Anthropic / Claude
#1

The Agency-Grade AI

Built for reasoning, not volume. Claude Code + Agent SDK lets us embed Sei-katsu-sha intelligence directly into client workflows. This is our platform.

THE EVOLUTION

From Chatbots to Agents

2022

Chatbots

Question → Answer. Single turn, no memory. ChatGPT launches. 100M users in 60 days.

2023

Assistants

Context-aware dialogue. Memory across sessions. File upload, plugins. Enterprise adoption begins.

2024

Copilots

Embedded in workflows. Code completion, writing. GitHub Copilot, Gemini. The tool era.

2025–26

Agents ← We are here

Autonomous execution. Multi-step reasoning. Tool use, code writing. Claude Code, Agent SDK.

DUAL MISSION

Run Two Missions Simultaneously

MISSION 1
Life Support

Arm the Organization

Build AI agents that compress workflows for everyone in the volume zone. They just use them. That’s it.

Don’t teach them how to use AI. Build the weapons and put them in their hands.

MISSION 2
Escape Rocket

Build the Battlefield

The advanced tier uses AI × Sei-katsu-sha thinking to create new projects and generate revenue outside marketing budgets.

Not life support. Build the next business model.

WHY ONLY US

Accenture Song, Dentsu — they can all deploy AI.

Accenture Song can build AI pipelines. Dentsu can deploy LLMs at scale.
What they cannot do: interview 10,000 Thai Gen-Z consumers about their emotional contradictions and encode the results into a living AI persona.

That is what HILL ASEAN has been building for 40 years. 15+ annual studies. 100,000+ respondents across Southeast Asia. The most granular consumer understanding of this region in existence.

We are the only agency that can turn that into AI.
Not a few reports per year — a Sei-katsu-sha you can query in every pitch, every brief, every client meeting.

NEXT

02 — Virtual Sei-katsu-sha

The philosophy says AI must understand humans as they actually are. This is the system that does it — 3 layers, 5 steps, and 4 live client cases.

Read Chapter 02 →