Delivered on February 2, 2026
The forefront of generative AI adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises and development companies
Speakers:
Satoshi Yonezawa, CEO, Fire Cracker Inc.
Affiliation and position information is as of the time of distribution
Our guest will be Mr. Yonezawa of Firecracker Inc., an IT consulting firm based in Sapporo. Focused on helping small and medium-sized businesses improve their operational efficiency, he will explain the background behind the company's shift from introducing SaaS at its founding to promoting the use of generative AI today. In addition to automating meeting minutes and support tasks, he will discuss the "promotion of AI for system development companies" as a major theme. While productivity can be increased by 3-10 times depending on the field, the barriers to widespread adoption are "learning how to use it" and "entering the organization." Drawing an analogy from the transition from calculators to Excel, he will delve into the importance of prompt design and final validation (tasting), the value of ethics and the humanities, the future brought about by the combination of local areas and AI, and prospects for the live event business.
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A Paradigm Shift from SaaS to Generative AI
Yonezawa founded Fire Cracker Inc. in April 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, he served as co-owner and CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in Shibuya, Tokyo. However, with the rise of remote work, he decided to return to his hometown of Sapporo and start his own business.
Initially, the company focused on supporting the implementation of SaaS (Software as a Service). However, since 2023, witnessing the dramatic evolution of generative AI, he has significantly shifted the direction of his business. Looking back on the SaaS boom that began in the late 2010s, Yonezawa analyzes that "the SaaS competition has come to an end to a certain extent, and the field is becoming more defined." He points out that generative AI can now directly fill the gaps in business processes that SaaS once filled, marking a major paradigm shift.
Automating Steps 2 to 9 in System Development
Currently, the company's primary focus is supporting the implementation of generative AI for system development companies and engineering organizations. Yonezawa compares the current state of system development to the accounting industry's transition from calculators to Excel. When Excel was first introduced, it took time for it to become widespread, despite being far more efficient than calculators. He says that generative AI in current system development is also in a similar transitional period.
As a specific change, Yonezawa describes the development process on a scale of 1 to 10. Until now, humans have been responsible for all steps from 1 to 10, but with the use of AI, he predicts that humans will only be responsible for the first step (instructions) and the final step (checking). Steps 2 to 9 in between, namely the actual coding and fine-tuning, will be handled by AI.
Yonezawa explains this change using the analogy of cooking. Just as it is important for a chef to decide what kind of curry they want to make (step 1) and then taste the resulting product to confirm it has the intended flavor (step 10), in engineering, the ability to prompt users to provide the correct instructions and determine whether the output is correct will be essential.
The Declining Workforce and New Skills Required of Engineers
The widespread adoption of AI is expected to increase engineer productivity by three to five times, even ten times in some fields. This will be a powerful tool to alleviate labor shortages in Japan, which is facing a serious decline in its workforce.
On the other hand, demand for engineers performing simple tasks is expected to decline. Yonezawa believes that in the future, the importance of fields such as the humanities, history, philosophy, and ethics will increase even more than knowledge of computer science.
Yonezawa predicts that people with the ability to consider what value AI should create—those with a sense of aesthetics and ethics—will become essential workers of the new era. This trend is further supported by the fact that global companies like Google are beginning to hire people with this basic education.
The Regional Counterattack: AI Transforms Hokkaido's Value
Based in Sapporo, Yonezawa believes the emergence of generative AI will bring great opportunities to regional areas. Until now, brainpower has tended to be concentrated in urban areas. However, generative AI will replace and equalize intellectual labor, narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas.
As a result, the importance of rural areas with abundant primary and secondary industries will increase relative to other areas. In resource-rich regions like Hokkaido, the combination of AI and rural areas has the potential to create unprecedented new business models.
Future Outlook and Challenging What AI Cannot Do
Fire Cracker Inc.'s long-term vision is uniquely driven by Yonezawa's vision: "After we've exhausted everything AI can do, we'll do what AI cannot." Specifically, he envisions expanding into businesses that emphasize human passion and experience, such as managing rock bands and live events, which Yonezawa himself loves.
This team shares the common goal of hosting live events, while also performing the sophisticated work of IT consulting. We aim to create an organization where the pursuit of skill and human passion coexist.
Summary
This conversation highlights how generative AI is not merely a tool for improving efficiency; it is transforming the very structure of system development, the qualities required of workers, and even the economic value of local regions.
Satoshi Yonezawa's approach of "focusing on steps 1 and 10" is highly thought-provoking not only for developers but for all businesspeople. While mastering the powerful brain of AI, we can hone our uniquely human aesthetic and ethical sense to deliver new value from local regions. Fire Cracker Inc.'s Sapporo-based endeavor will likely serve as a guidepost for the future of Japan's business scene. Rather than fearing technological advances, perhaps it's time to explore new ways of being human that take them into account.