Our goal is "true skill development in the age of AI."

At the beginning of the program, Mr. Motomura, head of Macnica 's AI & Digital Business Development Department, explained the purpose of the event.

▲Motomura was in charge of the event from opening to closing. Since it was during the World Cup, he participated wearing a soccer uniform.

▲A view of the venue. Despite being held on a weekday afternoon, nearly 30 people from diverse backgrounds participated.

The significance of this event lay in "individuals who were meeting for the first time and came from different backgrounds and affiliations forming teams and working together to create something."

At its core is the concept of "learning science" (learning psychology) advocated by Diana Joseph, who is active in Silicon Valley. Motomura, who is acquainted with her, said, "People can only learn something and acquire new skills when they take a step outside their familiar 'comfort zone'."

In other words, what was needed for this event was not technical proficiency, but rather a mindset to step outside one's comfort zone and take on challenges without fear of failure. "Even if you don't get the results you want, that's part of the learning process, and gaining new insights from it is the essential experience," Motomura continues.

The goal of this event was not simply to provide participants with theoretical knowledge, but rather to help them create "working digital prototype apps" that address specific challenges and everyday inconveniences they face.

While Motomura also recommended consulting with staff and engineers, he concluded by saying, "The proactive attitude of first asking questions to the AI yourself and trying to solve them is what truly leads to skill development in the age of AI."

▲The most important thing about this event is to have fun and take on challenges.

▲The overall flow. It was a long four-hour session, but when you're engrossed in the work, it goes by surprisingly quickly, doesn't it?

▲And the crucial team division was... conducted in a game-like manner!? Participants were asked three questions: "How much experience do you have in using AI?", "How much experience do you have in software development?", and "How much experience do you have in persuading others?". They then moved to the area they felt best represented and lined up physically. Based on the results of each question, personnel were allocated to each team in a balanced manner.

Are business efficiency apps gaining popularity? (Individual work edition)

Once the teams were formed, the main event began. The first individual task was to find "small inconveniences or problems in everyday life" and then, in collaboration with AI, develop an app to solve them.

Incidentally, the following were some examples of the tasks that were observed. Overall, it seemed that many participants were looking for some kind of "efficiency improvement."

• Creating personal to-do lists is a hassle.
• Efficiency improvement in maintenance and operation of company-wide systems
• I want to streamline my daily back-office operations.
• I want to create specifications and design documents from the code.
• I want to make it possible for anyone to create business efficiency tools.
• I need you to gather the scattered meeting minutes from around the office and answer my questions.
• I want to generate ideas for improving our company's security environment.
• I want to accumulate know-how in facility management and pass it on to the next generation.
• We want to visualize our employees' skills and strategically maximize our human resources.
• With the renewal of our core system, we want to ensure a smooth and complete system handover.

Additionally, one participant who had requested "I would like you to organize the scattered meeting minutes within the company and answer my questions" provided comments during the workshop (summary below).

"We feel that the inability to quickly retrieve necessary knowledge is inefficient, so we want to consolidate it in one place and create an environment where we can search across departments using AI. If we can achieve this, we believe we can transcend departmental boundaries and instantly extract answers and knowledge from past meeting content."

Motomura praised the presentation not only for identifying the problems but also for clearly presenting solutions, and the audience responded with applause.

▲We will develop apps to address a variety of challenges.

Incidentally, this event used a development tool called "Bolt," provided by StackBlitz, Inc. in the United States. Bolt is an AI-driven web application development tool that is completed entirely in a browser. You give instructions in a chat format, and the AI supports you from generating and executing the code of the web application to publishing it.

▲When you enter a prompt, apps suitable for solving your problem will be suggested.

▲Using "Plan Mode" makes the details of the app you need to develop much clearer.

▲A scene from individual work. Everyone was engrossed in their conversation with Bolt.

Let's pool our knowledge and complete it! Group work edition

After completing the individual work time, the program will move on to the next group work activity.

First, each group member shared their creation with other members of their group. The members evaluated each other's work and gave one of three types of stickers (right side of the image below) to the person who best fit the description. The goal was for the group to then work together to refine the app of the person who received the most "I want to start working on this today (green)" votes, and then present it in a showcase (in front of everyone).

▲Dividing roles is also important, such as having expertise in generative AI, being good at design, or being the go-to person for presentations. The foreshadowing of the team divisions at the beginning is now resolved.

▲Scenes from the group work. It was hard to believe that all the groups were actually meeting for the first time, as they were working together in a friendly and harmonious atmosphere.

▲Overview of the showcase.

Each group spent approximately 50 minutes developing one representative app. A total of eight teams presented their projects that day, but this article will highlight two of them.

① Improve engagement in web conferences with "AI automatic response function"

The group tackled the challenge that many people face in today's remote work environment: "feeling isolated during web conferences."

This is because in many meetings, participants turn off their cameras, and speakers receive little to no feedback or recognition from others. The group hypothesized that this situation creates feelings of anxiety and alienation in speakers, such as "it feels like I'm talking to myself" or "it feels like no one is listening," which in turn lowers overall engagement in the meeting.

To address these challenges, an "AI automatic interjection function" was devised that can be implemented in general web conferencing tools. This function uses AI to analyze the flow of conversation in real time and automatically generates natural interjections and positive reactions such as "I see" and "That's right" at the appropriate times.

Using this makes speakers feel more comfortable and confident speaking, thus ensuring psychological safety and leading to improved engagement.

The team defined the essence of this tool as "improving engagement starts with awareness," and their ultimate goal was not merely to implement the technology, but to create an environment where participants could feel connected to each other, even in a remote setting.

▲Actual screen. Pre-recorded voices are selected and automatically played in response to what others say. This demonstration also demonstrated integration with Google Meet.

② Leave everything from clothing management to outfit suggestions to "AI Closet"

The next group developed a clothing management and outfit suggestion app that allows users to accurately manage their own wardrobe while also suggesting the best outfits for different weather conditions and situations. Although all members of this group work in manufacturing, they focused on creating an app to solve their own everyday problems, separate from their work.

The starting point for this project was apparently some very real personal struggles with managing one's closet, such as "being bad at organizing," "forgetting what clothes you own when the seasons change," and "getting confused about how to combine the clothes you have."

▲While there was still room for improvement, such as the name of the clothing worn by the male character being listed as "flower print blouse," the UI was well-organized and easy to understand.

This app categorizes clothing into types such as tops and bottoms, creating a system that allows users to easily see and understand their items at a glance. Furthermore, when new clothing is purchased, information is added to the app's virtual closet, and the status of items can be visualized by registering their color and type.

▲You can also add supplementary information by entering text.

The outfit suggestion feature retrieves the current location, date, and time information, and automatically creates clothing combinations based on the day's temperature and weather, efficiently supporting users in choosing their daily outfits.

▲By accumulating data, you can identify clothes you rarely wear, which can be used as a criterion for deciding what to keep and what to discard.

According to the presenter, "In development, we focused on having the AI accurately understand the contents of each individual's closet and make suggestions optimized for that person. We believe that by further training the AI to learn the user's preferences, we can further improve the accuracy of the suggestions."

in conclusion

With all the groups having completed their showcases, "AI Monozukuri Fest '26 vol.1 in Tokyo" came to a close.

When we spoke to the participants, some were initially skeptical, wondering, "Can I really create an app myself?" However, after witnessing the process of the AI writing the code, they felt a strong sense of accomplishment, saying, "The very act of making the process visible is a great learning experience."

Furthermore, some participants were surprised by how easy it was to develop apps, saying, "I can't believe it's this simple once you actually try it," while others enjoyed the trial and error process, even when they encountered errors along the way.

The AI manufacturing festival we held this time was designed as a place to learn about the evolution of generative AI and how to interact with it, through experiences like these.

▲We received a variety of opinions on the Post-it notes provided on the table.

Macnica 's AI & Digital Business Development Department is fully committed to supporting our customers' AI utilization. Whether you're interested in this event or have any questions about generative AI, please feel free to contact us!