Kao (4452.T): Marketing strategy briefing: Reinforcing competitiveness in AI-driven recommendations harnessing scientific evidence

Research evidence excerpt

Kao (4452.T): Marketing strategy briefing: Reinforcing competitiveness in AI-driven recommendations harnessing scientific evidence

Equity Research

14 July 2026 | 4:34PM JST

Kao (4452.T): Marketing strategy briefing: Reinforcing competitiveness

in AI-driven recommendations harnessing scientific evidence

On July 14, Kao held a marketing strategy briefing featuring Hirofumi Ito, Head of the Takashi Miyazaki

+81(3)4587-9896 |

Marketing Innovation Center, as the main speaker. We confirmed that the scientific takashi.miyazaki@gs.com

Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.

evidence possessed by the company is likely to be a strength in agentic commerce,

Megumi Taniguchi

that management’s established monitoring (visualization) systems for AI-based +81(3)4587-9877 |

recommendations and word-of-mouth can help derive what Kao referred to as the megumi.taniguchi@gs.comGoldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.

“power to keep being chosen,” and that Kao aims to boost its overseas operating

margins via an organizational structure that deploys useful systems and HQ expertise

globally. We will be watching to see whether the company’s source of enhanced

competitiveness lies in stronger systems or in its track record of established brand

power and sales. We summarize the key takeaways below.

Key takeaways (company comments unless otherwise noted)

n New rules for being chosen in the AI era: Kao said that before the penetration

of AI, it was important to deliver value and information of utility to consumers,

whereas in the AI era, it is essential to deliver and accumulate value and

information across both consumers and AI. In agentic commerce, the quality of

reviews becomes more important than the quantity, and management noted

that it plans to harness the scientific evidence it possesses to support its efforts