Sumitomo Corporation held an analyst briefing on May 27, 2026, to present DAIS (Digital & AI Strategy), marking the first public disclosure of the group's long-term growth plan in digital and AI since fully acquiring system integrator SCSK in 2025. President and CEO Shingo Ueno and Digital AI Group CEO Tatsushi Tatsumi outlined a strategy that aims to improve ROIC by more than one percentage point by fiscal 2030 through a three-pillar structure centered on SCSK's growth, group-wide transformation, and collaboration between the two companies.
The three pillars of DAIS
Ueno framed the strategy around three competitive advantages: business frontlines across roughly 900 operating companies and 100,000 customers, SCSK's digital solutions, and employee talent. "DAIS will evolve step by step by linking the autonomous growth of SCSK, the business transformation of the entire Group, and collaboration between the two companies," Ueno said.
Pillar 1: SCSK's growth. SCSK, acquired fully in 2025, provides systems integration and network integration. Under its new medium-term management plan covering fiscal 2026 to 2030, the company aims to double profit levels compared with fiscal 2025 and achieve an operating profit margin of 15% or higher. Tatsumi said the company's ability to combine diverse systems, understand customer operations, and provide long-term stable support remains valuable even as AI adoption accelerates.
Pillar 2: Group transformation through AI. Sumitomo said it will focus on the application layer of the AI stack - services, agents, and related technologies - rather than models or infrastructure. The group aims to deliver short-term efficiency gains in corporate operations and medium-term industry models for supply chains and real estate. The broader goal is to evolve the business structure so that digital and AI become a primary source of competitiveness.
Pillar 3: Collaboration between Sumitomo and SCSK. In 2026, Sumitomo established a Digital AI Group while SCSK created a joint development division. The two companies will combine strengths for market reach, bundle businesses for competitiveness, and use Sumitomo as a first customer for SCSK-developed solutions. Ueno pointed to mobility and urban development as areas where collaboration could produce major results. "One area where we believe collaboration between Sumitomo Corporation and SCSK can lead to a revolutionary transformation of the business model is mobility," Ueno said. "By combining this capability with the expertise Sumitomo has cultivated in the automotive sector, we can collaborate across the entire process from vehicle design to completion."
Building digital skills across the group
Sumitomo launched D-Grade in April 2026, a certification framework that evaluates employees on knowledge from training and hands-on experience from frontline implementation. Tatsumi said the system is meant to develop people who can contribute directly to value creation rather than accumulate credentials, and to improve placement of the right people in the right roles.
The briefing attracted approximately 1,800 attendees including analysts, media, and employees from both companies.
Why this matters for executives and strategy
Sumitomo's approach offers a playbook for large conglomerates. By acquiring and fully integrating a system integrator, the group avoids the common pitfall of building AI capabilities in an isolated units. The three-pillar structure ties SCSK's external growth directly to group-wide transformation, rather than treating digital as a shared services team or a parallel initiative. Executives evaluating AI for Executives & Strategy adoption in large, diversified businesses should note the emphasis on placing SCSK as both an internal engine and an external commercial product. The ROIC target - one percentage point improvement by 2030 - gives a concrete financial stake in the strategy's progress.
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